As a swede, I visited the good old Zuid-Afrika in 1990, traveling with the ZAL in a 747 from London,. I can recall the special feeling from that period.
2018 and this seams to be as fantastic as a 'galaxy far far away'. Such standards, progress and prosperity in Africa? My children's going to think this is a work of fiction. I'm so glad they changed the livery though, would have broken my heart if the airline finally collapsed wearing the old colours. That 747.........I had a model as a child and now I'm in tears.
South Africa and SAA used to be heavyweights. We used to command respect and we could influence global aviation trends. Now, both the airline and the country are becoming just a memory. The ANC destroys everything it touches.
@@ca9968 no, you’re typical arrogance is showing. How could they afford the ticket when your much loved system prohibitied them from having decent employment? Shut your mouth you ignoramus
I flew as cabin crew from 1981 to 1993 I was nominated top ten crew in 1986.I miss it so much and my airline family. We were all very close and shared the same passion and pride of our airline.
NO, REALITY : BLUE DIAMON💎🧡💙✈ SERVICE ! If you Ever flown on SAA/ SAL South African Airways 🇿🇦, or Experienced Thier First Class Services, You would Know that They were on Par with VARIG, Air France, Braniff International , KLM, CP Air, British Caledonian, Gulf Air, PanAm and Singapore Airlines . SAA was a 5 Star 🌟 World Class Prestigeous, State of the Art Airline. Not as today, Diminished.
This made me cry. I even had the opportunity to fly on "Tante JU", ZS AFA from Wonderboom Airport on a sightseeing flight over Pretoria many years ago. How the times changed, and not for the better at that.
In the 70's our family used to fly SAA from Louis Botha Lughawe to Jan Smuts Lughawe and then on to J. G. STRYDOM LUGHAWE in Windhoek : thank GOD ALMIGHTY for those wondrous experiences! I will always remember the Flying Springbok!
Good to see Minister Hendrik Schoeman in this video. The good old days when you could look up to a minister. Now they are mere clowns for entertainment purposes.
@@dianamincher6479 wrong !! He was a man with vision…SAA under his watchfull eye flew to great heights…unlike the bankrupt excuse for a airline SAA is today.
Flew to South Africa when we as a family emigrated from the UK in 1983 on SAA Tafelberg...I was 6 years old and remember the experience well, the crew were amazing, they took my brother and I to the cockpit for a look and to meet the pilots then took us into the the area where they kept the food and gave us sweets... Many years later in 2007 we were at my brothers bachelors at a bar near Jhb Airport called "High Flyers" (My brother became an ATC at JHB Intl and the bar was owned by ex pilots), they have the cockpit of a 747 mounted into one of the walls in the bar, my brother took one look and identified it as SAA Tafelberg, the plane we`d arrived on 24 years back... What a shame the company became what it did....same for everything else the cANCer government got their thieving hands on...
As a child growing up in Tel Aviv, Israel, I remember the old livery of SAA. The airline's service between Johannesburg and Tel Aviv had stopovers in Larnaca and Lisbon.
Yes it was the best time crime was low that time now crime is hitting evry budy in South Africa The anc told the hard woking people to gif in ther guns now that whas a mistake
South Africa was definitely playing with all the biggest boys in the Industry during this time. I am sure if SAA continued with the success they had, SAA would have had an Airbus A380 in their fleet today. Maybe even multiple A380's. What a shame that we have lost such a great company....
Flew on One of the first 747s "Lebombo" in the 70s to London and again on that same jumbo from Bangkok in the 90s...well maintained and flown...an old friend.
hahahahahahahahaha I made a comment at the top of my voice when I flew as a kid in 1983 when they served breakfast, "MOM!!! LOOK!!! STEAK!!! FOR BREAKFAST!!! She nearly crawled under her seat she was so embarrassed, she still laughs about it to this day...
That was brilliant to watch. Very proud of the old boys with the coke bottle glasses, comb over hair do’s and crappy striped brown shirts... Such a shame it was not maintained. Thanks for posting this amazing bit of history.
This absolutely breaks my heart. To think where SAA was those years-top top top. Now just another public company raided by thieves and as bankrupt as it gets. Sad.
This brought tears to my eyes. I worked proudly for SAA for 11 years so you can imagine my sadness and indignation when I flew from Paris to Johannesburg in 2009 and overheard the air hostess ( referring to a group of elderly French passengers who didn't understand the instruction to fasten their seat belts )say "these people make me sick". I reported the incident but received no reply, although with all that happens in SA these days I am not surprised. How sad that such a fine country has become a third world country in just on 30 years.
First airline I flew in 1991. Food was tasty, flight attendants were very friendly and gave my brother and me colouring books and delicious candy. All happy memories. RIP SAA.
@@topstar443 Total fallacy, SAA was too professional for that. Their passengers were too prescious! Why use SAA if you had Safair flying an unmarked Boeing 707 to anywhere in the World and under the Radar?
I got told off for supporting a racist regime by a plane spotter and RU-vid site owner who films planes landing in Perth. Reason was because I said that I preferred the old flying Springbok logo on the tail fins of SAA . This guy from Perth likes the new SAA logo . That's alright by me . He is allowed to , but he hated me saying that I preferred the flying Springbok. Said it represented a cruel racist regime. I thought it represented a Springbok .Just like Qantas has a flying Kangaroo.. Now even animals represent Hate Speech . There appears to be a a few brainwashed nutters on RU-vid.
In the late 1980's there was much hostility towards South Africa from the outside world. The two countries who picked on South Africa the most, were the two countries who had the most to hide, namely the USA and Australia.
@@GoodVideos4 Remember that the world was told how "racist " the Whites of SA where. So they ignored all other countries and the world news media concentrated only on the White government of SA . They did a great job of indoctrinating the world against SA. Then FW de Klerk pulled his rabbit out of the hat . Whalla !! SA handed its democratic White govt over to Mandela and the communist ANC. The rest is history.
NATS ruined the country. Greedy pricks where there for themselves at the cost of future generations. They could have made many more people better off, instead of having 2 mansions they wanted as many as possible. Dutch planks
@@brubrulani It wasn't the Nats boet, we gave the Majority a fully function Country, a Super Power in fact, what happened after that you do the math...sir.
Dankie Braam Compton. Dit was 'n totaal ander tyd. Met heimwee ... I wonder what happened to that managers and there children? 1983 was 2 years before the trouble started. My father (D.J. van Niekerk, 1931-1984) had contact with Min. Ben Schoenman (Minster of Transport). It was not good. Thanx again Braam.
Two letters: F.W I've been out of S.A. for 19 years, and I've heard bizarre stuff such as regular power blackouts and also that the Post Office has been shut down, and there's talk of land seizures. Is this true? Damn. Klink so effens kak.
And then there was the ANC that totally destroyed a once world renowned and respected airline. I am convinced that there is nothing "these people" cannot wreck. It's either lost, stolen or broken, never created or improved on. The way of Africa.
Yes it was a brilliant airline ! But I must say that financial corruption also existed then too but not in the scale of today. We had a beautiful fleet of 747 , but today we are seeing boeing leaving the scene and being replaced by expensive rentals from a deformed European continent . Our pride is gone, " You can take a person out of the bush but you just can't take the bush out of him" .
Another good airline of South Africa, of that time, was Trek Airways. It was a private competitor. Some would know it as Luxavia. Pity it went bankrupt in 1994.
In both World Wars South Africa contibuted quite a bit to the Royal Air Force or the British Empire. South Africa,s top ace WW1, Beaucomp Procter 54 kills. WW2, quite a number of Gen. Montgomery,s Air Force of the British 8th army were South African as were R.A.F. bomber and fighter command.
More accurate to say that a full third of the Desert Air Force of WW2 comprised of SAAF squadrons, aircraft and men. Also remember some of the top RAF aces were South Africans - think "Pat" Pattle (40+ kills) and Sailor Malan (27+ kills)
The service delivery during that time was wayyyy beter then what the anc can give.why cant the anc also have pride and deliver good service.why becoz mampara.
14:56 they had to fly longer routes because other african states refused to allow them fly in their airspace due to the apartheid regime being in power
Diana Bowman : I remember a fight during Feb '85 SAA B747 London - JNB - London where we had a fuel stop at Sal in the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa. I'll never forget this but the aircraft was surrounded by military troops while we were on the ground.
Yes, many people do not know this. SAA planes had to go over the Atlantic to reach Europe as they were not allowed to fly over most African countries. Imagine the extra millions of gallons of jet fuel used. Not that I agreed with the apartheid regime, just a point of reflection
It was once a proud and efficient airline. But, SAA now sadly going bankrupt. It was also considered to be one of the best airlines in the world. Boeing even got some of their customer needs for the aircraft from SAA, It was in the days of the orange tails. And, to think that orange tails returned to the South African skies, for a while unfortunately, with Mango Airways.
South African Airways used to be a good airline. Now it's one of the worst. Nowadays, the food is terrible, most of the flight attendants are very rude, and they use those cramped 380 airbuses instead of 747s.
It was great watching this documentary. Have always been fascinated with SAA and wanted to know how it operated in the apartheid era (no offence). Would like to know what that lovely music is at 4:24 and 21:45.
14:00 one vital piece of information that was not disclosed is that because SAL was not permitted to enter the airspace of most of the African countries. It got worse for SAL during the mid to late eighties - the US had banned South African owner carriers operating in the United States.
It wasn't much of a bother as there were indications that Africa's airspace would be closed, the SAA management had already a plan for that eventuality.
It bothers me to see what a beautiful company Saa once was, like our national carrier Alitalia, but frankly what such a wonderful place South Africa was, more, according to some people who has travelled with Saa it’s still a valuable vector, can’ Say at all for Alitalia 😠
South African Airways new livery which was inspired by the new South African Flag is one of the most colorful liveries, the retro livery I think they discontinued it because of the new livery and to officially break away from the horrible history South Africa was in during apartheid. I don't know I could be wrong on the second one I said. When South Africa adopted the new flag in 1994 South African Airways got rid of the old flag of South Africa and replaced it with the new flag on all their airplanes but the livery stayed the same until 1997. I know that today public displaying the old flag of South Africa is now illegal and is considered hate speech and white supremacy but what about the old livery of South African Airways is it considered illegal today or something else?
I used to read the "Flying Springbok" the beautiful inflight magazine from the SAA Office in Milan, about 40 years ago. One of the worlds most beautiful liveries!!!!!Sorry to know this belongs to the past
Take a tip african mamparas? See many of you guys in this video? Okay look around the country now. See many of ua left? No. Because we're all busy leaving, making (the rest of) the world a better place.
