South African Airways (SAA) customers can now earn Voyager miles when travelling between South Africa and Singapore after the airline signed a codeshare agreement with fellow Star Alliance partner, Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines offers daily non-stop flights between Johannesburg and Singapore and flies once a week between Cape Town and Singapore. Singapore Airlines customers can in turn fly on SAA flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.

"This new partnership will maximise the huge benefits to customers of SAA's Star Alliance membership, in this instance, providing them with a direct link from South Africa to Singapore," says Nomfanelo Magwentshu, SAA General Manager Business Development.

"This is closely aligned to our ideals of offering more routes to customers and expanding our international offering."

The agreement comes into effect as of September 1, when customers can begin purchasing tickets for travel from September 15.

Singapore Airlines Executive Vice President, Marketing and the Regions, Huang Cheng Eng, expressed optimism for the new partnership saying, "This new codeshare agreement represents our growing relationship with SAA, one of our Star Alliance partners, and our on going efforts to maximise the opportunities offered by our combined network to the benefit of our customers.

"I am confident that the agreement between the two airlines will stimulate demand for travel on SAA and Singapore Airlines to our countries and beyond."

SAA joined Star Alliance, the world's largest global airline network with 17 other international and three regional carriers, in April this year.