Low cost airline FlySafair is adding to its capacity as it aims to add three new aircraft in the next two months and hire more crew.
FlySafair spokesperson Kirby Gordon told Business Report in an interview this week that the airline’s purchase of new aircraft would allow it to offer additional options to customers and keep fares lower.
FlySafair is rapidly growing it market share after the collapse of airline Comair and as budget airline Mango’s business rescue process appears to have stalled, leaving it out of the market.
“Another highlight for us heading into 2023 is the fact that we’ve been awarded the rights to start operating a number of regional routes to neighbouring countries. We already operate a service to Mauritius and we’re busy working on a few new routes that we hope to be able to announce in the next few months,” Gordon said.
In October, the South African Air Services Licensing Council approved the airline’s applications to operate flights to ten new destinations across Southern Africa.
It already operates a twice-weekly service between South Africa and Mauritius, as well as domestic flights between Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, George and Port Elizabeth.
Adding to its growth path, the airline is also garnering awards.
In January FlySafair received an international award for punctuality.
It ranked second globally and was been ranked the most on-time airline in the Africa and Middle East category in the Official Aviation Guide of the Airways (OAG’s) 2023 Punctuality League.
Gordon, describing the 2022/23 festive summer season, said it was strong for airlines and other members of the local tourism value chain.
“In domestic air travel, particularly, we operated in a situation where the market supply was somewhat below the high season demand and so, as is usually the case, flights filled up and even the last, more expensive seats, ended up selling. What was a little unusual this year was quite how far in advance the flights were selling out, which was really a product of the fact that there was simply more demand than supply,” Gordon said.
The first portion of January had also been strong, as they managed the return traffic of people heading home after the holidays but as was to be expected, the last two weeks in January have been quiet.
“This is very often the case – leisure travellers have just returned from their holidays so they’re not going anywhere and business travellers are only just getting back to the office and haven’t started planning trips yet. The last two weeks of January are always a great time to find excellent deals,” he said.
Commenting on local challenges, FlySafair faced, he said while the cost of fuel had improved slightly, this remained a concern and increased operating costs.
“Similarly we need to see the South African economy grow so that we can get customers – both in terms of individuals with disposable income to fly and businesses that need to travel to do business,” he said.
“Ours is a business that is generally very deeply impacted by domestic and global economic shifts, but which ultimately needs to be able to survive and even thrive in spite of them,” he said.
However, FlySafair said it was confident that there was still a bit of recovery and even some future growth available in the domestic travel market.
The airline said at this stage, loadshedding had a minimal direct impact on their business. However, FlySafair has had to equip its technical operations with backup power solutions while the actual airport infrastructures, as national key points, were fairly protected.
“The biggest impact at this stage is felt more through the effect that energy instability is having on our economy and how many customers are struggling economically,” Gordon said.
BUSINESS REPORT