SAA has been battling allegations of flight delays and complaints about over-bookings in recent weeks. Moneyweb was made aware of at least 200 passengers affected by a South Africa - London flight delay overnight last month due to a technical error. A passenger complained that the delay caused disruptions to passenger schedules, despite their being upgraded to first-class seats on Emirates, forcing them to fly to London via Dubai.

In addition, due to the economic downturn, SAA has announced it will reduce a number of flights on some domestic and international routes (Moneyweb is aware of planned cancellations for Europe and the United States between February and June this year). SAA has indicated that it will reinstate flights should demand increase on affected routes.

Robyn Chalmers, head of SAA Group corporate affairs, confirmed the cancellations. "We have reduced the number of flights on some of our routes, but we do attempt to ensure that passengers are given advance warning."

After investigating the flight delays in April, SAA indicated that these were caused by flight SA236 from Johannesburg to London being unable to operate due to a technical problem with one of the engines. "Passengers booked on this flight were accommodated at nearby hotels until the new departure as SA9236 the following day, on Sunday April 19," said Chalmers. "The aircraft's engine was replaced."

"Saturday night's stopped flight resulted in SA221 from Cape Town to London departing 90 minutes later than scheduled. However, SAA's second daily flight from Johannesburg to London, SA234, departed as scheduled on Saturday."

To add to SAA's woes, passengers also mentioned inconvenience due to recent over-bookings, forcing them to travel on alternative flights at later times.

According to Peter Sherman, media and public relations manager of Travelstart, over-bookings are practiced by all airlines to offset possible "no-shows". "Airline seats are a highly perishable commodity," said Sherman. "If you are frequently compensating for a 10 to 15% no-show on any given flight, over-bookings are the nature of the business."

Chalmers concurs. "SAA is reviewing its overbooking policy and the impact it has on our customers," she said. "Over-booking has been practiced by most international airlines around the world for a number of years. It allows airlines to manage the high rate of passenger no-shows regularly experienced."

Sherman points out that airlines have departments analysing flight patterns and trying to predict likely problems with no-shows and flights that may have to be cancelled. Airlines then have an agreement among themselves whereby they honour passengers' tickets at face value (that is, upgrading a passenger to another airline will not incur an additional cost to the passenger or the airline).

If flights are over-booked, the affected airline will either stop selling seats on those flights or continue selling with the view that sufficient customers will cancel or be no-shows to warrant further sales. The dynamic is a tricky one, as "no show" passengers are part of the statistical picture and have to be planned for. Meanwhile, Sherman points out that there are passengers who routinely and deliberately book themselves on over-booked flights - delayed passengers can receive up to 600 euros in Europe, by way of compensation. These passengers are not doing their fellow travellers any favours as they are partly responsible for over-bookings and subsequent cancellations.

SAA has apologised to the passengers who missed the Johannesburg to London flight. The airline has also defended its over-booking practice. "Overbooking is not practised aggressively," Chalmers said. "A specialised team at SAA consistently monitors flights to determine trends and to determine whether overbooking would be necessary. Only a small percentage will be overbooked and passengers are always compensated."

www.moneyweb.co.za

By Special correspondent