South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is set to retire the last of its B737-200(F)s, ZS-SID (msn 22583), from active duty on June 25, SAA Cargo General Manager, Mr Tleli Makhetha, has said. The gradual phasing out of the type began in December last year with ZS-SIF (msn 22585) being replaced with a B737-400(F), S5-ABV (msn 24128), wet-leased from Solinair (SOP, Portoroz). SAA Cargo also operates two B737-300(F)s on a route network that extends throughout South Africa as well as the sub region.

South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is planning to spend "between USD4billion and USD7billion" on 25-30 long-haul aircraft, set to become the struggling airline's backbone fleet. According to the carrier's Acting CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout, both the B787-8 and the A350-900/A350-1000 have been considered with a decision due in the next 90 days. Once an order has been placed, deliveries would be expected to commence from 2017 onwards he said. While once a staunch Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare) operator, SAA's long haul fleet is currently dominated with Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) metal: six A330-200s, eight A340-300s and nine A340-600s.

South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) phased-out the last of its six A340-200s, ZS-SLF (c/n 6) on May 28, ch-aviation has learned. The South African national carrier will, however, continue to operate a fleet of eight A340-300s and nine A340-600s. As global fuel prices continue to bite, many of the world's airlines are moving to retire the type from their fleets with Aerolineas Argentinas (AR, Buenos Aires Ezeiza) set to replace their four -200s with newer A330-200s, while Royal Jordanian (RJ, Amman Queen Alia) will replace theirs with B787-8s. Venezuela's Conviasa (V0, Caracas Simón Bolivar) has yet to announce their intentions for their sole remaining -200, YV1004 (c/n 31).

South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) will take delivery of its first of a batch of twenty Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) A320-200s in Q3 of this year. The delivery, signed over a decade ago as part of the airline's fleet renewal strategy, has been persistently deferred by the South African national carrier as a result of its ongoing financial woes. In addition, SAA has renegotiated the terms of the deal with Airbus where it will now lease the aircraft, as opposed to buying them, thereby allowing it to recuperate the pre-delivery payments made to purchase them. SAA chief financial officer Wolf Meyer said last week the airline had selected a lessor for the "sale and leaseback" acquisition strategy but would not name them until the transaction had been approved by SAA's board.

South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has wet-leased a B737-400(F), S5-ABV (c/n 1715), from Slovenia's Solinair (SOP, Portoroz). The aircraft will enter operational service for the carrier's cargo division, SAA Cargo. In addition to using the belly-hold space on SAA's passenger flights, SAA Cargo's dedicated-fleet consists of two B737-200(F)s and two B737-300(F)s which it uses for both domestic and regional operations.