Review: South African Airways Airbus A320 Economy Class Windhoek to Johannesburg
South America/Africa/Europe Review Series:
- United Polaris 767-300 New Polaris Washington to Sao Paulo
- South African Airways A330-200 Business Class Sao Paulo to Johannesburg
- Kulula Boeing 737-800 Economy Class Johannesburg to Cape Town
- Air Namibia Airbus A319 Economy Class Cape Town to Windhoek via Walvis Bay
- South African Airways Airbus A320 Economy Class Windhoek to Johannesburg
- South African Airways Airbus A330-300 Business Class Johannesburg to Accra
- KLM Boeing 777-300ER Economy Comfort Accra to Amsterdam
- Aer Lingus Airbus A330-200 Business Class Dublin to Washington
The Flight At A Glance:
| Aircraft: | Boeing 737-800 |
| Origin: | Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport |
| Destination: | Windoek Hosea Kutako InternationalAirport |
| Flight Time: | 1h 45m |
| Date: | July 1, 2019 |
| Class of Service: | Economy Class |
| Airline: | South A |
| Flight Score: | 67/100 |
| Flight Number: | SA75 |
| Seat Number: | 16A |
| Time of Departure: | 12:15 PM SAST |
| Time of Arrival: | 2:00 PM SAST |
| Departure Terminal: | Main Terminal |
| Aircraft Tail Number: | ZS-SZG |
Pre-Flight:
First, I should probably give you some background. My parents and I originally planned to go visit Windhoek, Namibia for two days and two nights. We then had to go to Accra next, so Air Namibia’s flight from Windhoek to Accra via Lagos was the most convenient and cheapest option. However, due to diplomatic tensions and financial problems, Air Namibia
After a wonderful (but way too short) 1 day stay in Windhoek (we originally would of had more, but with inbound and outbound flight changes, the 48 hour stay was reduced to a 36 hour one), we arrived at Windhoek airport, which is located 30 minutes away from Windhoek in the Namib Desert. Windhoek Airport mostly has short-haul flights around southern Africa, although there are long-haul flights on multiple airlines, including on Qatar Airways (to Doha), Condor (to Frankfurt), Air Namibia (also to Frankfurt), Eurowings (yes, there are three airlines that fly from Windhoek to Frankfurt), Ethiopian Airlines (to Addis Ababa), and KLM (to Luanda and Amsterdam).
Windhoek Airport’s terminal is tiny. It also is quite old and not that pleasant – however there have been plans to build a new airport terminal for Windhoek. It being winter there, it actually was quite cold inside the main check-in area (which was also the same area as the arrivals area) as there was quite clearly no heating. The landslide area felt almost like a rundown warehouse or something. The check-in area only has a couple of small check-in desks. In fact, Qatar Airways (and I think also KLM) use a temporary baggage drop and check-in area with rollable desks on the side because there aren’t enough permanent check-in desks. The bags are weighted there and then transported on trolleys manually to the baggage conveyor belt where they then are transported to the aircraft. We arrived at about 9:45, about 2.5 hours before the scheduled departure. Unfortunately, we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes because the check-in desks only opened at 10:15 – two hours before departure, which I guess is reasonable.
After checking the bags, we headed towards immigration and security, which was a mess. Everyone had to fill out departure forms, which I guess is expected, but what was annoying is that they could only be filled out in a tiny room in between the main hall and the security zone. It had one long-standing table that made it feel a bit like a post office. Next came security. Windhoek (along with other African airports) has a really inefficient way of screening passengers. They only had three screening machines, and only one person can go up to each machine at once, making security take at least 3 times longer than it should. I can’t imagine how long the line would take in peak times with multiple widebody aircraft departing at once.
Windhoek Airport’s terminal is tiny–even smaller than the main departures area. There was one lounge (which I didn’t have access to since we weren’t in business class on this segment) which honesty didn’t even look that good. Then, there were only two gates, with some seating in between that could barely hold enough for two A320s. I wonder how the terminal is at night when many more flights leave at the same time. The seating itself wasn’t all that bad, and the terminal wasn’t that dirty per se, but felt very dated. There weren’t many stores and there were only 1 or 2 restaurants. Overall, the terminal was about what I would expect from an airport in a developing nation in Africa, but if you look at some of the newer airports in Dakar or Accra, Windhoek Airport is really lagging behind. A new terminal couldn’t come soon enough. My one compliment for the airport is that at least there was free WiFi.
At about 11:45 (about 15 minutes late), boarding commenced. We didn’t have priority boarding because we weren’t in business class on this flight, so I regret to say that I couldn’t get many unobscured pictures of the cabin, but I was second in line for the economy class line. Our plane was parked next to a Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8, which looked bigger than a 787-8 would normally look at a major international airport. To the far left of the tarmac was a KLM Airbus A330-200, which would head to Luanda in the evening. Our SAA A320 was in a special livery promoting South African Airways’ Voyager credit cards. It’s interesting to note that South African Airways’ short-haul A319/A320 fleet are all in slightly different liveries than their long-haul aircraft as they feature South African’s website – saa.com in red letters on the fuselage.
The Flight
Our boarding passes were checked at the door, as is the norm in Africa (and many other places in the world). South African recently retrofitted their A320s with a new onboard product featuring new, more modern seats in business and economy class. Because of that, the cabin felt modern and fresh. Business class had a whopping 24 seats (most airlines only have 12 or 18 in business class on their A320s) in a 2-2 configuration. They honestly looked very modern and comfortable – much more so than first class on many airlines in the US.
After walking through the business class cabin, I settled into my seat at 16A, the first row after the exit row. I generally found the cabin to be very aesthetically interesting with beige seat covers and black headrests–more so than just having the standard dark blue seats found on many airlines in Europe and around the world. However, unlike their older seats in economy class, these were slimline seats. I had high hopes that the seats would be comfortable, but they weren’t at all. They were very hard and very uncomfortable. Additionally, the seat only had about 31 inches of legroom, which is pretty average (actually tending on the good side) for economy class. But for a relatively tall person like me, the legroom really wouldn’t be comfortable on a longer flight. Overall, the seat was fine for a 1.5-hour flight, but I wouldn’t want to be in it for more than 3 hours.
Fortunately though, the seat did have a power outlet and a USB port in between each seat, which was a pleasant surprise. Additionally, there were also individual air nozzles, which is something that is found in most economy class products, but rarely in business class. I then had a flip through their in-flight magazine, which was pretty boring, besides the fact that South African Airways desperately needs a new illustrator for their aircraft (seriously, that A330 looks nowhere near an A330 in that magazine).
Next, the flight crew had to spray the cabin with an anti-bug spray, as is standard on international flights to and from African countries. At about 12:15, the captain came on and said that there would be an approximate flight time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. We then started the relatively short taxi to runway 08, where we took off from.
After a smooth takeoff, the seat belt sign was turned off about 5 minutes after takeoff. South African Airways serves warm meals on most of its short-haul flights to even its passengers in economy class, which is something that doesn’t really happen at all within North America. This came in handy as the flight departed right around
The meal wasn’t that large, but I knew that I would be able to eat a more substantial meal at the South African Airways lounge during the connection. Throughout the flight, South African only played promotional videos about South Africa on the overhead screens which weren’t that interesting. After the lunch service was collected about 45 minutes into the flight (an impressive pace), I visited the lavatory, which was pretty clean but also was basic.
The flight was pretty uneventful, and I enjoyed the views outside the window of the desert. We started our descent about 20 minutes before landing. At that point, the plane hit some massive turbulence which was among the worst that I’ve had in years.
The captain came on and said that we’d arrive exactly on time at a bit before 2:00. I also love how that on every airline that I’ve flown within Africa, the captain always comes on and says: “crew, 10 minutes until landing.” I guess that’s my definition of a hard deadline. We had a hard landing at the far runway at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport (runway 3R).
We had a rather long taxi to the terminal as we landed at the far runway. We arrived at the older section of the international terminal with older style gates. Our aircraft parked next to a beautiful Air Tanzania Airbus A220, which they recently used to expand in Africa to Johannesburg. Afterwords, it was a rather long walk to the transfer area where we could transfer to another international flight without having to clear immigration in South Africa. Next in this review series, I’ll review South African Airways’ newest business class product on their A330-300, so stay tuned for that!
Conclusion
I had a decent flight on South African Airways in their short-haul economy class product. The cabin was new and modern, although the seats weren’t comfortable and the legroom wasn’t great. Also unfortunately, there wasn’t any in-flight entertainment of any kind. However, at least there were power outlets and USB ports. South African provided hot meals, which was appreciated on a short-haul flight such as this one, although the quality was fairly average for economy class. Another bonus was that the flight was on-time. I would recommend using South African Airways’ short-haul economy class within South Africa as it was definitely a step up from low-cost carriers such as Kulula (although the price did show that), but it’s definitely nothing special.
What is your experience traveling in South African Airways’ short-haul product?