SAA launches new UK team to raise profile

South African Airways has launched a new UK marketing team as it aims to get the airline 'back on the map' in the UK and Ireland.

This follows the airline scrapping its direct service from Heathrow to Cape Town in August citing increased competition from both direct and indirect services as the reason.

It also claimed the market between the UK and South Africa has shrunk by 24%, see previous story, although it still offers double daily flights direct between Heathrow and Johannesburg.

Gary Kershaw, UK & Ireland general manager, has recruited an experienced team with Liam Quinn as business development manager, Jon Danks as head of UK marketing and communications, Stephen Gerrard as commercial manager and Matt Parr as leisure sales manager.

Philip Ariss will be corporate sales manager and Kerry Farmer, with experience at lastminute.com, will drive online revenue as online sales manager.

Kershaw said: "The new team will be working hard building key relationships with our partners and put SAA firmly back on the map."

Monday, October 22, 2012

Post your comment

Your Comments

NOTE: Comments are subject to admin approval before being posted.

SAA Going Down?

They lack a vision, and they are too slow to react. I am not too optimistic that they will succeed, unless something major happens. One would have expected the airline to be making major progress after the World Cup only recently.

By Richard Mandunya, Monday, October 22, 2012
Cape Town flight

After giving up the direct London to Cape Town flight, which was the best for tourists, it seems SAA has woken up a bit late and realised what a mistake that was. The few other direct flights are now packed and many previous SAA regulars are switching to using BA locally to get BA airmiles. All this was forecast, but SAA knew better! Tim Sale

By salepro , Monday, October 22, 2012