South African Airways (SAA) will start flights to Washington on Friday as part of a financial turnaround strategy, it said on Thursday.

The state-owned airline said in a statement the Washington service would operate 4 times a week via Accra in Ghana -- strengthening its position in Africa and across the Atlantic.

The flag carrier posted a pretax loss of ZAR8.7 billion rand (USD$1.30 billion) in 2003/04, but appears on track to return to profit during the financial year which ended in March. Results are due in July.

"Our American routes have shown tremendous growth and adding a third destination to North America provides a wonderful opportunity for expanding our global route network," it said.

The airline already flies to New York and Atlanta. It hopes to join the Star Alliance of airlines before the end of the year.