South African Airways (SA/SAA) has had several wide body aircraft in its fleet throughout its history, both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The first of these, according to the airline’s website, was added in 1971, being a brand new Boeing 747.

Over the years, South African has continued to expand its fleet of wide body aircraft, reaching around 20 747s at its peak during some years in the 1990s. Six Boeing 747SPs, eight Boeing 747-200s, six Boeing 747-300s and eight Boeing 747-400s were part of SAA, operating between October 1971 and October 2010.

First Boeing 747

The first wide body aircraft, Boeing 747-244B serial number 20239, registered as ZS-SAN, was incorporated by South African Airways on October 22nd, 1971. Regarding the last operational Boeing 747, on October 25th, 2010 the airline retired the Boeing 747-444, which had the registration ZS-SAZ. It was configured for 335 passengers in three classes and had been delivered to SAA in November 1998.

South African Airways had decided to retire the Boeing 747-300 and Boeing 747-400 to replace them with Airbus A340-600s, which were newer but had less seating capacity. The first two A340s, with registrations ZS-SNA and ZS-SNB, arrived at O.R. Tambo International Airport in December 2002, also new from the factory.

In 2003 and 2004, the airline kept adding Airbus A340s to its fleet, but of the -200 and -300 versions. All Airbus A340-200s were withdrawn from the fleet in 2011, several of the Airbus A340-300s from 2018 and all Airbus A340-600s between 2020 and 2021, the latter as a consequence of the pandemic.

By the end of 2019, South African had initiated a major fleet expansion, with the acquisition of its first Airbus A350-900. The arrival of this aircraft represented a state-of-the-art service and operational improvement for the airline, as it aimed to replace the A330s and A340s with A350s.

Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic affected all of South African Airways’ future plans for its fleet, retiring three of these aircraft in March 2020, with mid-April 2020 being their last scheduled A350 flight. In accordance with our data, ZS-SDC, ZS-SDD, ZS-SDE and ZS-SDF were their registrations, averaging four years old.

Two of these airplanes joined Thai Airways in 2023, but will soon be added to Edelweiss Air (ex ZS-SDC and ZS-SDD). Since November 2020, the remaining A350s have been operating for Air Mauritius.

As of today, four aircraft are part of South African’s wide body fleet. Two A340-300s, registered ZS-SXD and ZS-SXF, which have been in operation for the airline since 2011, while it also has two Airbus A330-300s.

The first A330-300 was incorporated by SAA in June 2016, new from the factory, but was withdrawn in April 2020 due to Coronavirus. In February 2022, after almost two years parked at Lourdes Tarbes, it joined Airhub Airlines, a Maltese carrier, which withdrew it from service in May 2022. Finally, in February 2024, this Airbus A330-300 returned to South African Airways (ZS-SXJ).

Regarding the second A330-300, the aircraft was added in June 2017, and always operated for South African (ZS-SXM). As a result of the pandemic, between March 2020 and October 2021 it remained grounded at JNB.

Current wide body operation

Moving on to routes and destinations, the Airbus A330-300s and Airbus A340-300s are based at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB/FAOR), although the A330-300s also operate a transatlantic route to/from Cape Town International Airport (CPT/FACT).

As you can see through our database, Abidjan, Accra, Lagos, Perth, Port Louis (*) and Sao Paulo Guarulhos are the destinations of South African’s wide body aircraft, with Sao Paulo being the main one, considering the number of scheduled routes.

Johannesburg – Accra

Sunday

• SA 52  Johannesburg JNB 14:55 · 19:00 ACC Accra
• SA 53  Accra ACC 20:30 · 04:25+1 JNB Johannesburg

Johannesburg – Accra – Abidjan

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• SA 56  Johannesburg JNB 10:55 · 15:00 ACC Accra
• SA 56  Accra ACC 16:00 · 17:00 ABJ Abidjan

• SA 57  Abidjan ABJ 18:00 · 19:05 ACC Accra
• SA 57  Accra ACC 20:15 · 04:10+1 JNB Johannesburg

Johannesburg – Cape Town – Sao Paulo

Tuesday and Saturday

• SA 317  Johannesburg JNB 08:40 · 10:55 CPT Cape Town
• SA 226  Cape Town CPT 12:25 · 16:45 GRU Sao Paulo

• SA 227  Sao Paulo GRU 18:15 · 06:40+1 CPT Cape Town
• SA 314  Cape Town CPT 08:10+1 · 10:10+1 JNB Johannesburg

Johannesburg – Lagos

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday

• SA 60  Johannesburg JNB 15:10 · 20:30 LOS Lagos
• SA 61  Lagos LOS 22:00 · 04:55+1 JNB Johannesburg

Johannesburg – Mauritius

Note: The airline normally operates this route with Airbus A320-200 aircraft, but occasionally uses the Airbus A340-300 on some flights.

Daily

• SA 190  Johannesburg JNB 09:40 · 15:40 MRU Mauritius
• SA 191  Mauritius MRU 16:30 · 19:00 JNB Johannesburg

Johannesburg – Perth

Daily except Wednesday and Friday

• SA 280  Johannesburg JNB 20:55 · 12:20+1 PER Perth

Daily except Thursday and Saturday

• SA 281  Perth PER 23:50 · 05:15+1 JNB Johannesburg

As we published in our April monthly route report, South African Airways will have a competitor on the Johannesburg – Perth route starting in December.

Johannesburg – Sao Paulo

Monday and Thursday

• SA 222  Johannesburg JNB 09:50 · 15:25 GRU Sao Paulo
• SA 223  Sao Paulo GRU 17:05 · 07:00+1 JNB Johannesburg

SAA flights with wide body aircraft

*Seats offered to each destination may be less as they are part of the same route.

In comparison to March 2020, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, South African Airways had a larger wide body operation, between its Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-300, Airbus A340-300, Airbus A340-600 and Airbus A350-900. The airline had more than 20 aircraft among all variations, and these were its scheduled routes, based on our data.

Our data shows that South African flew between Johannesburg and Hong Kong until October 30th, 2019 with Airbus A340 aircraft. Due to the pandemic, in 2020 it did not return to HKG, as well as in subsequent years.

Until March 2020, the airline had more than 10 scheduled routes with wide body aircraft on five different continents. SAA served Accra (ACC/DGAA), Frankfurt (FRA/EDDF), Lagos (LOS/DNMM), London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL), Munich (MUC/EDDM), New York (JFK/KJFK), Port Louis (MRU/FIMP), Sao Paulo (GRU/SBGR), Victoria Falls (VFA/FVFA) and Washington DC (IAD/KIAD), with Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States and Zimbabwe being the countries, in addition to South Africa, with its Johannesburg – Cape Town route.

South African Airways, after many years, inaugurated its first transatlantic route from Cape Town in November 2023. The company continues to operate between CPT and Sao Paulo with Airbus A330s.

SAA wide body aircraft as per our data

From February 2011 to May 2020, South African operated Airbus A330-200 aircraft and, according to our data, it was one of its main wide body aircraft used, at least between September 2019 and March 2020.

The company conducted around 5100 flights with wide body aircraft between September 1st, 2019 and December 31st, 2019. Its A330-300s carried out more than 1600 flights, followed by the A330-200 with 1266, the A340-600 with 1103, the A340-300 with 1083 and the A350-900, SAA’s latest addition, with 35.

In Q1 2020, A350-900 operations increased to 370 flights. A330-200s and A330-300s performed 708 and 775 flights, respectively, while A340-300s 374 flights and A340-600s 219 flights.

In accordance with our data, 7554 flights, whether scheduled, special, charter or non-scheduled, were operated by South African Airways wide body aircraft from September 1st, 2019 to March 2020.

Cover photo: samuelau – JetPhotos (Hong Kong · February 2016)