Air New Zealand and South African Airways (SAA) have signed a code share agreement, enabling the two carriers to offer a one-stop service between Auckland and Johannesburg via Perth.

From 1 November Air New Zealand will code share on South African Airways' daily service between Perth and Johannesburg, as well as onto their connecting domestic services to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.

South African Airways will in turn code share on Air New Zealand's daily Auckland - Perth service and onto connecting Air New Zealand domestic flights to Wellington and Christchurch. They will also code share onto Air New Zealand's trans-Tasman services between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch to Sydney.

"We recognise there is an opportunity to better meet customers' needs for travel between New Zealand and South Africa," says Ed Sims, Air New Zealand Group General Manager Long Haul Airline.

"With the connection at Perth and also at domestic points in both New Zealand and South Africa this new arrangement will be very popular." For South African Airways this code share offers equal opportunities.

"Adding Air New Zealand as a code share partner will provide our customers with further access to key destinations in New Zealand and South Africa. We are looking forward to working closely with Air New Zealand as our partnership will improve the connections between our respective networks," says Jason Krause, SAA Head of Business Development.

There are more than 41,000 South Africans living in New Zealand, with 23,000 short term arrivals from South Africa for the year to June 2009. Nearly 87 per cent of those arrivals came for the purpose of visiting friends and family or a holiday.

More than 12,000 New Zealand residents visited South Africa in the same period. South African Airways operates direct daily services between Johannesburg and Perth with an Airbus A340 aircraft. Air New Zealand operates a 223 seat Boeing 767-300 between Perth and Auckland.

As Star Alliance partners, there are also opportunities where the members of the carriers' loyalty programmes, Voyager for SAA and Airpoints Dollars for Air New Zealand can earn and redeem miles on one another.