Eish, it could only be SAA!

2003-11-18 22:58

Wolfram Zwecker

Johannesburg - "African Vibrations" are bang on time, but South African Airways regret to announce "Eish" and "Klaasvakie" are late tonight.

This could well be the dulcet tones ringing out in airports countrywide when the airline decides on the names for its new fleet of Airbuses.

The suggestions for names for SAA's new planes are truly representative of the "Rainbow Nation".

SAA launched a competition about two months ago, asking people to come up with names for the fleet that will be made up of 46 Airbuses in the next 10 years.

Sarah Uys of SAA said they received thousands of entries. A committee will be appointed to consider the suggestions and choose the winners. These will be named in February when SAA celebrates its 70th anniversary.

The first Airbus A340-600 has already been named after former president Nelson Mandela. It will be the only one to be named after a living person.

The entrants showed a lot of creativity with suggestions ranging from names of flowers, dams and cities, to Mrs Ples (the skull of a primitive man), Cloud Nine and Spirit of Freedom.

- Beeld