Airline fares between Cape Town and Joburg rose steeply after low-cost airline 1Time stopped flying at the end of last year. The good news is that fares are certain to drop again when at least one new low-cost airline, FlySafair, starts to compete with Mango and Kulula on the route in a few weeks’ time.
Safair, which for 50 years has provided back-up services to other airlines, including substituting an unmarked aircraft with crew if for any reason a flight would otherwise have had to be cancelled, has decided to launch its own scheduled service.
Chief executive Dave Andrew said tickets will go on sale next month and by the last quarter of the year FlySafair will be operating 10 flights a day. It will use two Boeing 737-300s on the route and intends offering competitive fares.
Safair has years of experience in providing aircraft leasing, maintenance, special operations, chartering and training services.
Although the airline industry is going through tough times, both business travel and tourism are starting to rise and are expected to grow in the coming year.
Comair, which owns Kulula, has lodged an objection to the granting of a licence to Safair on the grounds that, although it meets the requirement of being 75 percent owned by South Africans, most of the profits will go to the Irish company owning the remaining 25 percent. If the objection is successful it may stop or delay Safair’s launch.
Rodney James, one of the partners who founded and later sold 1Time, has been granted a licence for a new airline, Skywise, to fly the Cape Town to Joburg route but has made no arrangements for airport facilities or ticket sales.
