South African Airways will be offering flights from January next year which will fly nonstop to Beijing International Airport, which is located in the city centre. This is the first time they have offered this service and the first flight will leave from Johannesburg in South Africa on the 31st January and there will be three weekly flights. South African Airways was voted at the World Travel Awards as Africa’s Leading Airline.
The chief executive of South African Airways, Siza Mzimela, explained that the airline is very pleased to offer these flights. He said that they have plans to expand in to Asia, which is the fastest growing market in the world and that this was part of their plan. The linking of the countries should include trade and tourism, which will spread through all of the Southern African Development community. Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and South Africa are expected to be popular as Chinese tourists are already regular visitors and so by making it easier to get to, it should see even more visits. It will connect two important BRICS countries as well and help trade between them.
It was in August last year, when China and South Africa formed a partnership. They discussed issues such as working together on housing, education, health, infrastructure, construction, water resources utilisation and transportation. As part of this, the non-stop flights should help the two countries to be able to have more leisure and business traffic moving between them.
