The last few months have certainly been most eventful here at South African Airways, and this has been especially so for those of us involved in the Voyager programme.

Over this period we have seen the appointment of both our new Executive Director, Mafika Mkwanazi and our new Chief Executive, Coleman Andrews who will be piloting us through this period of transition. We at South African Airways feel confident that, with them at the controls, we will soon have a profitable airline again.

Our Voyager programme is growing steadily and we enrolled our 500 000th member, Stewart Sullivan, on 15 April this year. You will notice that, in addition to our committed existing Voyager partners, we have had a steady increase in the number of new partners joining the programme and I'm happy to say that it is you, the member, who will be reaping the benefits of this growth.

A lucky couple will be reaping even more benefits in our competition which is inspired by the South American flavour of this issue. The prize is a trip for two to Buenos Aires for seven days, including flights and hotel accommodation at the luxurious Park Hyatt in Buenos Aires. Please be sure to enter. We are also going to be introducing you to HIGH FLYERS, a series featuring some high profile Voyager members. In this issue, Bradley Michael, Managing Director of Planet Hollywood, South Africa, and Pat Dambe, Managing Director of Khaya FM, have been interviewed and we take a peep into their hectic lives.

I hope you will enjoy the new look of ALTITUDE created by our recently-appointed advertising agency, TBWA Hunt Lascaris and the change in the contents in this first issue with me as editor. We would love to hear your opinion of the new ALTITUDE and have included a READERS' SURVEY for your comments. Kindly fill it in and fax it to us as soon as possible.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you who participated in our FLYING WITH PRIDE personnel recognition programme. In this issue we report back on how well this programme is working for South African Airways in ensuring that our contact staff deliver the service you expect from the national carrier. Please continue with your support for the programme.

Until next time…

  
Salome Rafii
Manager: Voyager Relationship Marketing
and Editor of Altitude.