World Cup Flights

[eaststand85]

Going to start this off here unless any objections, mods please feel free to move to Fans Forum if you think it's more appropriate. Thanks!

My sister in law lives in Johannesburg so hoping to set up base there for the duration of the tournament next year. Have a couple of questions though in relation to flying to South Africa:

• Does anyone know when the airlines will start releasing flights to SA and who are the best to fly with to Joburg? The obvious candidates such as BA, KLM, Air France and Lufthansa don't appear to have anything available yet.
  
• Is flying the best way to move around the venues within SA or are there better alternatives?
  
• If flying is the best way to get around SA then is there a multi trip ticket available (either as part of original ticket to SA or separately) or is it just a question of booking individual flights once final schedule (hopefully including Irish matches!!!) becomes known?

All assistance much appreciated!!

[endabob1]

eaststand85 I use this website
www.saflights.co.za

Not sure on how to link to another post so I've quoted it below

For internal flights I would use SAA but the other 2 are the South African budget Ryan Air equivalent, never tried them so can't really comment. The one thing I have heard is you need to book well in advance to get cheap flights. Internal flights in SA are generally not cheap, SAA & Comair (A BA Subsiduary) had a monopoly up until relatively recently.

www.flysaa.com
www.kulula.com
www.flymango.com

As mentioned elsewhere, the main roads are fine but SA is very, very big country
http://www.drivesouthafrica.co.za/di...uth-africa.php

Basically Cape Town is 765km's from the next nearest stadium, unless Ireland get based here (which I doubt as I guess it'll only be the seeds who are "based" in on city") it will be a mission to get from Durban or Jhb/Pretoria down here, it's a 2 hour flight from either city and driving is only a realistic option one way.
That said if we were in PE & Cape Town (A lot of assumptions going on there) then it's a stunning drive, and well worth it.
http://www.southafrica.info/2010/
Is a website well worth checking out. Also I will try to stick an occasional update on here if I get any local news which is likely to be of interest.

I've since learned that there is on "basing" so teams will move around, which will make following teams a pain.
Also there is a train service but it is very slow, Cape Town to PE for example would take you about 9 hours roughly but by train it's a 24 hour trip on the posh
http://www.premierclasse.co.za/peroute.html

Seat61 is a belter for train stuff, but in SA I'd try to fly most places unless you are going to stay around Gauteng
http://www.seat61.com/SouthAfrica.htm

[eaststand85]

Cheers EndaBob, much appreciated. Is there another thread dealing with this already, couldn't find one?

[endabob1]

Not really a dedicated one, there's bits & bobs of stuff in the various 2010 threads, might be an idea to get it all into one though.

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/2010/g..._June_09_a.jpg
Cool pic of the glass roof going on the Green Point Stadium

[Claret Murph]

Yer a good shout would it be possible for one of the mods to put in a sub section 2010 world cup , it would make life a lot easier for all please .

[finbarrk]

The major airlines are usually 11 months in advance of flying date so getting close to that now.

[MickeyT]

There's actually a few flights coming available on www.opodo.co.uk at the moment. Prices are showing up as more than £1,500 apart from Turkish Airlines which is a bargain basement £650 or so. So pretty much like the accomodation it looks like the airlines are simply going to double their normal price and take it from there

[ParkLife]

I was assuming most airlines will be doubling there prices. That said, I was thinking to myself, would it work out cheaper to fly to a country that hasn't/won't qualify for the WC and fly out from there. Maybe get a cheap flight to Brussels,and on from there. If that country hasn't qualified then I don't see any reason for them to up their prices. Would I be right in saying that??

[finbarrk]

You would be fairly right but you would want to make sure that that country has direct flights otherwise it would take maybe 24 hrs to get there.

[endabob1]

It's a good theory except most flights from Europe come via London, Frankfurt & Amsterdam ...Hmm I'm noticing a trend here...
A usefull option is to fly via the arab world, Dubai or Quatar are good bets, and you can get a couple of days sunshine in before arriving home, also Turkish airlines generally do good deals but that would be a bridge to far for me, personally I'd rather pay more and do the BA thing.

[HarpoJoyce]

One way is to start looking for flights is at the distination airports, both Oliver Reginald Tambo Johannesburg and Cape Town International are both run by Airports Company South Africa.

O.R. Tambo
http://www.acsa.co.za/home.asp?pid=3230

Cape Town Int.
http://www.acsa.co.za/home.asp?pid=3444

Jo'burg busier than Cape Town.

It's a good theory except most flights from Europe come via London, Frankfurt & Amsterdam ...Hmm I'm noticing a trend here...
A usefull option is to fly via the arab world, Dubai or Quatar are good bets, and you can get a couple of days sunshine in before arriving home, also Turkish airlines generally do good deals but that would be a bridge to far for me, personally I'd rather pay more and do the BA thing.

I think using the Gulf states is a good option for those who find the big European airlines far too expensive and prefer not to travel on the African airlines. Although SAA, Kenya Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines would be considered good for getting down there.

Ethihad Airways fly from Dublin and use Abu Dhabi (UAE) as a hub. But as they heavily advertise on other sports in Ireland there may be boycott issues for some Rep. of Irl fans.
Route Map
http://ey.innosked.com/

Anyone wanting to stay a time and pick up another flight later.
Emirates use Dubai (UAE), down the road from Abu Dhabi, offer some reasonable stopover rates.
http://www.emirates.com/za/English/p...n_arrival.aspx

(Gulf Air fly out of Bahrain and would need another regional flight or two to get a connection to RSA. http://www.globetravels.com/content/...r/Gulf_Air.htm)

[OneRedArmy]

It's a good theory except most flights from Europe come via London, Frankfurt & Amsterdam ...Hmm I'm noticing a trend here...
A usefull option is to fly via the arab world, Dubai or Quatar are good bets, and you can get a couple of days sunshine in before arriving home, also Turkish airlines generally do good deals but that would be a bridge to far for me, personally I'd rather pay more and do the BA thing.

Turkish are a better airline than BA in my experience. Better service and newer planes.

In any case it's going to be tough to get seats on BA at any price as I think I remember reading they've done a deal with Thomson to block blook lots of seats for the England Fans travel club. Think they are already on sale through Thomson.

[Closed Account 2]

I'm looking at TAP Portugal (via Maputo, Mozambique or Luanda, Angola) or Air Berlin via Windhoek Namibia, but they are looking pretty expensive (£800 minimun) - I might try and fly to Tanzania and bus it down from there, there are trains from Dar Es Saalam to Zambia and then trains from Zambia to SAF via Botswana, or you can drive from Dar Es Saalam to Durban in about 1 week via the coast of Mozambique

[Newryrep]

Turkish are a better airline than BA in my experience. Better service and newer planes.

In any case it's going to be tough to get seats on BA at any price as I think I remember reading they've done a deal with Thomson to block blook lots of seats for the England Fans travel club. Think they are already on sale through Thomson.

Also against us is that England are certs to qualify and we might have to wait until a month later via the play off so any half decent deals out of the UK will be long gone when we come to book.

[stojkovic]

Sister lives in Jo'burg.

Usually flies via Dubai.

[finbarrk]

Just booked a return to Cape Town from Heathrow. Around €1,000. Expensive but its a direct overnight flight both ways.

[kevincronin2000]

Fans travelling to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year will find that the host nation is so pushed for accommodation that they may be encouraged to base themselves in neighbouring countries. Zimbabwe is being promoted as one of the most likely options.

South Africa's lack of hotels means that a system will also be incorporated whereby fans are billeted in local family homes. A further plan is to push for use of hotels in tourist areas that are not near World Cup venues and bus in supporters from afar. An example given by Fifa, the sport's world governing body, is to base fans on the picturesque Garden Route and transport them by bus to Durban, 750 miles away.

With only a year and a day until the World Cup final, these are just some of the headlines if you want to be daunted by what lies ahead. At a press conference last week, after South Africa's hosting of the Confederations Cup, Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, said that accommodation and transport were “now a big challenge”.


It is quite something for Blatter to acknowledge such blatantly inherent problems. He also said that, because of the chill of the South African winter, camping was not an option for visitors. This may come as a surprise to Polokwane, formerly known as Pietersburg, the northernmost host city, which is planning a campsite for 2,000 people in local school grounds. Again, the solution could lie over the Zimbabwe border, 130 miles away.

It should be acknowledged that this is fertile media territory. Before most leading world sporting events, the hosts' flaws are rich pickings for the press. Last year's Olympic Games in Beijing, it was reported, were going to be ruined by smog and human rights atrocities and the venues for the Athens Games four years earlier were never going to be built on time.

Yet there may not have been a top sporting event for which scepticism was better founded than South Africa 2010. A prediction here is that, by this time next year, hundreds, maybe thousands, will have missed kick-off times or matches because of transport problems. Another prediction is that South Africa will be unique, providing one of the best and richest sporting experiences imaginable. And also that there may never have been one where global goodwill has been stronger.

The World Cup is not only a landmark event for world football, it is a defining event for its host nation. And here's hoping that, once the football circus has been and gone, it will have defined it for the better.

Until 70,000 workers went on strike on Wednesday, it seemed that the one certainty for 2010 was the construction of the stadiums. They would be finished and would be splendid.

But, despite these recent problems, the evidence is persuasive. The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth is a beauty. The new stadium in Nelspruit is built round 16 pylons made to look like giraffes. From the south stand of the (nearly finished) 46,000-seat venue in Polokwane, which backs on to a game reserve, there will be days when punters will be able to see the real thing. And in Soweto's (almost) rebuilt Soccer City Stadium, the players' tunnel has been designed like the inside of a goldmine, a reflection of the industry that gave Johannesburg its wealth.

It does not stop there. Only last November, the near-complete rebuild of another 46,000-seat venue, the Orlando Stadium on the other side of Soweto, was finished. And next week, financiers hope to finalise funding for the new 50,000-seat Amakhozi Stadium in Johannesburg, for the Kaizer Chiefs football club. Yet neither the Orlando nor the Amakhozi is needed as World Cup venues.

It is as if a packet of stadium seeds has been sprinkled over the Rainbow Nation. The question is not whether there will be enough world-class facilities for South Africa's World Cup. It is: are there too many? And when the World Cup has been and gone, can they really all fund themselves, as they profess, on a diet of rock concerts, religious festivals and the occasional big sporting event?

In an interview with The Times, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, scotched rumours that it was because of Fifa pressure that stadium hunger broke out. It was South Africa and its host cities, he said, that wanted to make a statement and post an advertisement for the country. An expensive advertisement it is, too. The World Cup “will strengthen this country's profile,” Jordaan said. “The world will be surprised.”

Indeed, the surprise for a first-time visitor to Cape Town next year will be turning right out of the airport on to the main road into the city and being confronted with the Langa township, a 60,000 (some say 250,000) tin-shack community at the roadside. Then, farther down the road, finding the new Green Point Stadium in one of the wealthiest, most attractive corners of the city. By the way, there is no public transport system between one and the other.

Green Point, at the planning stage, was to cost 1.2 billion rands (about £93 million) but is estimated now at R4.5 billion. In fact, it was not even in the original World Cup bid document because Cape Town was to host matches at Newlands, its historical rugby ground. The same is the case in Durban (costs climbing from R1.6 billion to R3.1 billion), where the magnificent ABSA Stadium was billed as a host until the city decided to build another stadium next to it.

There can be no starker picture of flawed planning than the Durban skyline. The city council agreed to the new Durban Stadium because it could be configured as an athletics stadium and therefore host the Olympics or Commonwealth Games. However, to fund itself post-2010, it needs Natal Sharks, the rugby team, to move from their ABSA Stadium home.

Yet the Sharks have no intention of doing so, and as Brian van Zyl, their chief executive, said: “Why move into an athletics stadium where the seating is too far from the field of play? We could never understand why they elected to build in the first place. The decision was totally irresponsible and, as a city rate-payer, it was very annoying.”

But this is no isolated case. The Super 14 rugby union teams bring in the cash, which is why Green Point also needs the Stormers to move from Newlands. Meanwhile, in Port Elizabeth, for the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, there is no Super 14 team and the Premier Soccer League club have been relegated.

And Polokwane has a city population of 250,000, is building a 46,000-seat stadium (with no roof on the east stand because of overspend), has no host team of note and not even a stadium management company appointed to find one.

It does not take Lovers Sibanda, the editor of The Speaker, the Polokwane newspaper, to mention the words “white elephant” and say that “it is supposed to be a business that sustains itself, but I don't think it will”.

Indeed, of the ten stadiums to be used for the World Cup next year, five have been built from scratch (total cost about R12billion) and not one appears to be a sustainable post-2010 business. Furthermore, only one of the five (in Port Elizabeth) was in the original bid document.

There will be many wonderful stories from next year's World Cup, but how and why South Africa 2010 went from its original, economically tight bid to its present shape may be the enduring one. And was it responsible of Fifa to let it do so?

Staging a World Cup is a huge investment and South Africa, of all host nations, needs a proper return - to have its reputation swelling, not its overdraft. The hope is that the World Cup will help the First and Third worlds of South Africa to edge closer. Let us hold that hope, but it is becoming a slim one.

Potential for lack of air-traffic control

There may be no greater test of the logistics at South Africa 2010 than those on match day at the airport in Polokwane. It is an example of how the country has benefited from the World Cup: the main building has been rebuilt, which would not have happened otherwise, but the new building is not remotely large enough to cater for World Cup traffic.

Polokwane, formerly known as Pietersburg, is the capital of Limpopo province, a stop-off 230 miles north of Johannesburg. The hope is that the World Cup will advertise the city as the gateway to Kruger Park. At present, the airport's daily traffic involves the arrival and departure of four 30-seat planes. Because airport traffic is counted only one way, Polokwane airport is used at most, therefore, by 120 people. The daily average is 100.

During the World Cup, however, this could increase a hundred-fold. At its peak, on match days, in Polokwane a procession of 20 Boeing 737s will come and go. At a minimum, 7,500 people will disembark every day; at most it will be 12,500.

The airport authorities have also been informed that, on arrival, they are expected to shift their punters from plane to bus in ten minutes. “You can plan for it, but how do you deal with it?” Sipho Mthombeni, the airport chief executive, said. “It will be a big challenge. Sometimes I lose sleep about it.” The ten-minute transfer? “I don't think it is possible,” he said.

He is charged with training 50 temporary staff and using a neighbouring plane hangar as a make-do arrivals lounge. “We have never experienced anything like this,” he said. “It is probable that it will not go as smoothly as we would like.”

[finbarrk]

It was never going to be easy Kevin! Although one never knows until the event takes place.

[endabob1]

Kevin, That's an interesting articale (if somewhat factually incorrect in places), I'm interested where you picked it up from?

[kevincronin2000]

off the bbc website i think.

if not the bbc it was the gaurdian or the times but almost sure it was the bbc