SAFA To Ease National Team Travel With Key Partnership

SAFA has announced a new partnership with a national airline, that will see it becoming the official carrier of South Africa's national teams at all levels.

Check it out!

Read: Bafana Stars Lead Youth Football Festivals

The story

The South African Football Association (SAFA) announced today a new partnership with South African Airways (SAA), designating the airline as the official carrier for South Africa's national football teams.According to SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao, this 12-month partnership will significantly aid in transporting national teams to their international match and tournament destinations.

"We welcome back SAA to help us get to key fixtures in destinations they fly to on a non-exclusive basis," said Monyepao adding: "It is important for us as SAFA to give considerations to our own when we consider partners, albeit on a short-term basis.

"Our approach is to stabilize our commercial partnerships with diverse partners that reduce our cost base and also add into our coffers, so SAA will play a key role as a strategic partner for our need to travel and compete internationally on a regular basis."

SAA interim chief executive officer, Professor John Lamola said the airline is proud to be the official carrier of SAFA:

"We are delighted to be associated with national sports brands such as Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana. This reaffirms our indisputable position as the national carrier and airline of choice for assignments of strategic importance to our nation," said Lamola.

"We welcome our national teams on board, and we look forward to flying them around the world on national duty to represent our nation.  We know the players and officials will be well taken care of and will enjoy our award-winning hospitality that SAA is renowned for," he added.

As mentioned in SAFA's press release, the partnership between these two entities is in line with SAA's plans to grow in Africa, as they seek to expose the SAA brand to key African markets and on television screens in full view of the continent's football-loving audiences.

This partnership is viewed as a win-win for both SAFA and SAA, the latter gets that brand exposure while the former sorts out the pressing issue of travelling for the players.

SAFA and SAA's collaboration will see Bafana Bafana, Banyana Banyana and the junior national teams fly directly to their various destinations, giving the players piece of mind of knowing that they'll be comfortable and well rested before representing Mzansi on the pitch.

Read: WATCH | Vilakazi's Touching Gesture To His Grandmother 

Have your say on SAFA and SAA collaborating...

You must be SIGNED IN to read and post comments. 

Related tags