Dear SAA Colleagues,

This morning I was met by jubilant airport staff at OR Tambo International Airport and cabin crew at Airways Park when I arrived back with the 2019 Skytrax Award for Best Airline Staff in Africa.

It is the seventh time we have received this award, reaffirming our vision to be the leading airline on the African continent.

This award recognises service excellence across the entire spectrum of front-line customer service touch points and includes staff service for both airport and on-board experiences. Customer satisfaction scoring evaluates all aspects of staff service efficiency, friendliness and service hospitality, staff language skills, and overall quality consistency for the airline’s staff.

Besides this prestigious award, we also received a number of other Skytrax awards for 2019:

·        Best Cabin Crew in Africa;

·        Best Airline Cabin Cleanliness in Africa;

·        Best Business Class Lounge in Africa;

At the awards event, Mr Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax; said that this is “a major recognition for the thousands of SAA front-line staff who are responsible for serving customers. Achieving this top ranked consistency is not an easy task in the airline business, and it is a great accolade for SAA to have achieved this major recognition from customers.”

Our alliance, Star Alliance, also claimed the Best Airline Alliance for the fourth year running and the Alliance’s prestigious Los Angeles Lounge retained the Best Airline Alliance Lounge award for the fifth year in a row.

This past weekend SAA was also named the Coolest Domestic Airline at the Sunday Times Gen Next Awards, which is the leading barometer of youth sentiment in South Africa.

Earlier this month, our in-flight magazine, Sawubona, won the award for Africa’s Leading In-Flight Magazine at the World Travel Awards™ (WTA) for the fifth year in a row. 

I dedicate these awards to you team SAA, and thank you for your excellent work!

More pictures of the award will be shared with you shortly.

Regards / Kamnandi,

Zuks Ramasia

Group Chief Executive Officer (Acting)

From left: Tim Atkinson, SAA Head: Airport Operations – International; Sciuscian Aimut, Customer Services Agent – Frankfurt Airport; Zuks Ramasia, SAA Group CEO (Acting); Gidey Tsegay, Customer Services Agent – Frankfurt Airport; and Michael Bentele, SAA Head of Europe. Picture by Tim Atkinson.