Planenutz From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1267 posts, RR: 12 Posted (9 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 1838 times:
SAA's June inflight magazine lists 747SPs ZS-SPC "Maluti" and ZS-SPE "Hantam" as part of the current SAA fleet (along with 3 A340-600s, 2 A340-200s, and 2 A330s leased from BMI). Does anyone know which routes these planes operate? I understand that they were being used JNB-MXP but that this had recenly changed to 743s.
Planenutz From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1267 posts, RR: 12 Reply 5, posted (9 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1746 times:
It seems that (if the inflight mag. is accurate) SAA has an exceedingly large fleet for its long-haul ops. Consider it:
744 8
743 6
742 4
74L 2
762 2
A46 3 (6 on order)
A42 2 (3 on order)
A33 2 (both leased from bmi)
That's 29 aircraft for 29 destinations outside of South Africa, the majoroty of which are not daily services, and on which 738 and 732 are used in flights to southern and eastern Africa. It seems that the 747SPs would have been retired a long time ago, especially since they dont even compare in amenities and economy offered on the other 747s and Airbus aircraft.
Lxlgu From South Africa, joined Sep 2000, 1085 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (9 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1737 times:
The 767s will be withdrawn by December and will be replaced by 340-200s
on the West Africa and Mumbai routes
The 340-200 will start by end July also on Sao Paulo route
The 330s from BD should be out by end November
Of course all according to delivery of aircraft
Cheers!
Na From Germany, joined Dec 1999, 9603 posts, RR: 10 Reply 7, posted (9 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1679 times:
Well, at the moment SAAs longhaul fleet is very diverse. But thats because they´re in the middle of changing types.
The 742s and the SPs will leave very soon, probably all this year still. One 742 is already permanently retired. The A342s are an interim measure for the A343s to come. The 762 as said is also a leaving family member.
So out of the list of 8 types 3 will be gone shortterm, 1 midterm.
And the 4 types left then for longhaul are not uncommon at all.
SAA201 From South Africa, joined May 2001, 505 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (9 years 11 months 1 week 1 hour ago) and read 1567 times:
SAA only really has one B747SP in regular service, ZS-SPE. ZS-SPC is still airworthy and is only used as a backup/spare aircraft for ZS-SPE.
There are now only 2 B747-200's that are flying around fairly regularly, ZS-SAL and SAM. ZS-SAO was broken up last week and SAP hasn't flown since 14 Apr. SAN is going to the SAA Museum Society an has flown once or twice in the spare aircraft role since its farewell flypast at Rand Airport about 2 months ago.
The next A340-200 (SAA's 3rd) is due in the next two weeks with another due in August. This will effectively allow the B747-200s to be take a much deserved retirement. I see however that they are doing a few domestic and London services in about November. They will probably be kept on till the end of the peak tourist season, ie December/Jan. B747-300's will start to be retired from the fleet in the next few months too.
Yes, SAA's longhaul fleet is at an alltime peak at the moment, but this is just an interim pending the delivery of more Airbuses. The plan is for all the B747 "classics" to be phased out of the fleet by about Feb next year.
Swissgabe From Switzerland, joined Jan 2000, 5265 posts, RR: 37 Reply 10, posted (9 years 11 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1420 times:
Well, for me there was not a "big difference" inside the 74L and the 743. I mean both planes are old, one more then the other, but still, both are old and will be replaced by modern aircrafts.
Smooth as silk - Royal Orchid Service /// Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens - Springbok
Spacepope From Vatican City, joined Dec 1999, 2735 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (9 years 11 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 1180 times:
NW already has 2 ex-swissair 743s, which they used for engines and spares. Both airframes had been parked since 1998(?) and had well over 80,000 hours on them at that time. It is not inconcievable that these SAA birds will have closer to 100,000 on them, which seems to be the magic number in scrapping 747s. They may have a few hajj charters left in them if sold to another operator, but they have way too few airframe hours left for cargo conversion. As NW is trying to phase out its 742 fleet, and has already disposed of its DC-10-40s, I doubt that they would pick up any more 743s for engines, unless of course it converts some of its newest pax 742s to freighters, which it already has a dozen of.
Gigneil From United States of America, joined Nov 2002, 16215 posts, RR: 88 Reply 15, posted (9 years 11 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 1117 times:
I think the word is that NW's newest 742s will definitely be converted to freighters. IndustrialPate can probably lend more guidance to the subject.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1267 posts, 
From Singapore, joined Jan 2001, 1452 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Switzerland, joined Mar 2001, 880 posts, 
From South Africa, joined Sep 2000, 1085 posts, 
From Germany, joined Dec 1999, 9603 posts, 
From Vatican City, joined Dec 1999, 2735 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
