In an effort to boost the knowledge of its trade partners and equip them with requisite skills to take advantage of the many offers open to their customers, South African Airways (SAA) held an Agents Networking Forum for its top performing Agents at RadissonBlu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja.
The Airline set the tone for the day by holding a raffle draw and presenting Shopping Gift Vouchers to lucky winners in appreciation of their support and understanding in the past year as well as for standing by the airline all through the very busy festive period in December 2025 despite a few challenges then.
SAA Country Manager, Mrs. Kemi Leke-Bamtefa, said: “We take our relationship with you our trade partners very seriously because we realize the important role you play in the value chain of the travel industry. Our records show that a great percentage of our business comes from the efforts of you our trade partners. You are therefore invaluable to us and we do not take your partnership for granted.”
The Country Manager offered apologies and expressed her deepest appreciation to the agents for their patience, understanding and the highest level of professionalism they displayed during the Christmas peak season that was up scaled with two additional flights but also experienced some challenges. She also used the forum to introduce the airline’s new Sales Manager, Mrs. Adetoun Fowode, an industry trade veteran with 15 years Travel Agency experience.
The Regional Manager of South African Tourism (SAT), Mr. Mohammed Tanko was also on hand to intimate the agents with the various travel and tourism packages that abound across the nine provinces of South Africa with the theme; “Come Find Your Joy.”
He described a silhouette of the many places of interest and their unique holiday offerings with top rated hotels and resorts; from Cape Town to Mpumalanga; Free State to Limpopo; Sun City to Eastern Cape; Port Elizabeth and George Town; with particular mention of the Cape of St. Francis popularly known as “The Venice of Africa.”
Speaking further, Mrs. Kemi Leke-Bamtefa disclosed that SAA introduced two new routes including Gaborone on November 4 and Cape Town to Mauritius flights on December 9, 2025. She added that the airline has resumed its normal operations of four weekly flights out of Lagos on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Responding to calls from the Agents for more flights out of Lagos, the Country Manager advised passengers to travel via Accra on days that SAA doesn’t operate out of Lagos. “South African Airways is renowned for safety and security, schedule integrity, seamless travel experience with local expertise as well as competitive fares,” she assured.
She also encouraged trade partners to reach out to the airline for collaboration and strategic partnerships whenever they had specific travel requests from their customers regarding group travel and tailored services.
Touching on the issue of visas, the Country Manager maintained that SAA doesn’t have control over processing and issuance of visas. She however urged agents to be more professional in their approach when it comes to offering visa assistance to their clients and warned against abuse of the new e-visa process.
Adding his voice to this passionate appeal, Mr. Mohammed Tanko noted that there are more options to acquire visas now including the e-visa process and the option of making an application without dropping one’s passport. He also remarked that longer term visas were now being issued with a processing time of two weeks.
