South African Airways will bring back the Airbus A350.

In October 2019, South Africa Airways (SAA) made headlines after it took delivery of the A350. The celebrations were short-lived as the airline only operated the type for 5 months. SAA ran into multiple problems, which led to flight suspensions and eventually bankruptcy protection and suspending flight operations once again. In total, the airline operated four A350 jets, with 2 being leased from leasing company Avolon and the other 2 from Air Mauritius. This resulted in two different configurations. Avalon provided jets which were previously operated by Hainan Airlines with a total of 326 seats (28 business class and 298 economy class seats), whereas Air Mauritius provided jets with 339 seats (30 business class seats and 309 economy class seats).

A few years later and no longer insolvent, SAA has outlined that in the future, the A350 will be reintroduced to its fleet and put to use on longhaul routes to Frankfurt, London, New York and Washington. The airline plans to use its current fleet of A330s to resume flights to Perth and Sao Paulo. The interim chief commercial officer, Tebogo Tsimane said, “The routes that we’ve picked for this year are the routes that will be easier and quicker for us to start. They do not require the type of investment that will take us long.”