Johannesburg — FEW international airlines are adding additional seat capacity or flights for the Soccer World Cup, meaning charter flights will be key in bringing foreign fans to SA.

Until now the largest increase in flights has been from US or South American carriers.

Delta Airlines is to add 17 extra flights over the tournament, providing 4700 extra seats. In addition to the six extra flights announced in January, Delta is now adding a further 11 services in July and August to respond to the demand for seats.

The flights will be operated using Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

These flights are apart from Delta's normal scheduled daily flights between Atlanta and Johannesburg.

SAA has seen a surge in demand for its flights to and from Washington and New York.

"We have noticed an increase in demand on our US routes but it has not necessitated the addition of flights. We will continue monitoring demand over the period in order to make decisions on increases," said SAA spokeswoman Vimla Maistry.

According to Fifa's latest sales figures, fans in the US have bought 123749 match tickets through public sales. Fans from Mexico have bought 21591 match tickets and there is likely to be demand from Honduras. Both countries have teams in the tournament.

"Many of the fans from (Central) America will travel through the southern US to get to SA, putting further pressure on Delta to add capacity," said Allan Moore, CEO of the Board of Airline Representatives of SA.

There is enormous demand from South America, where there are five countries - Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay - taking part in the World Cup.

SAA is adding two additional flights a week between Johannesburg and Sao Paulo from June, bringing to 11 the number of weekly flights.

Moore pointed out that a large number of Latin American airlines, including AeroMexico, LAN Chile and TAM from Brazil, are putting on special charter flights during the World Cup.

Surprisingly, with 13 European countries taking part in the tournament, few airlines from the region are adding flights to their schedules, apart from Air France.

The airline recently introduced the 538-seat Airbus A380 on the Paris-Johannesburg route, which it will use for its daily flights. During the tournament, Air France will add an extra three flights a week using a Boeing 777.

The other big European carriers, Lufthansa and British Airways, will not be adding any additional capacity to their already extensive flights. However, travel group Thomas Cook has been given the rights to operate charter flights from London .

Emirates, the official World Cup airline, has not added any additional capacity.

"We have seen good demand over the World Cup but as yet there has been no need to add extra flights," said Fouad Caunhye, Emirates regional manager in southern Africa.

Australian carriers have not added aircraft to their South African routes. Qantas will add a special flight from Melbourne to Johannesburg only on May 26, when Australian fans can join their team on their way to the World Cup.

"We will have a better sense of the true numbers of foreigners coming to SA in the next few weeks, but it is unlikely that we will see any surge in flights to SA," said Moore.