Despite the collapse of USAfrica, the domestic airline business is not saturated, reports Andre van Zyl
Paradoxically, the collapse of United States airline USAfrica has focused attention on the domestic airline business in South Africa. Is there enough room for everybody?
A quick runaround of some of the local airlines suggested that, contrary to conventional wisdom, there is. Comair MD Piet van Hoven said that his airline had a particularly successful December season and he was satisfied with the results. He said there was no doubt that the market had grown on certain route sectors. South Africa’s normalised profile abroad is bringing new international tourists and there are also more commercial travellers here.
Van Hoven, however, cautioned that the Johannesburg-Cape Town route serviced by four carriers is being overtraded compared with similar route densities in other parts of the world. On the other hand Durban has three carriers and most of the other routes have either one or two carriers.
South Africa is going through an adjustment phase – as evidenced by the short period of time in which Flitestar entered and left the market. “I am sure that will not be the last carrier to withdraw from the South African market, but that is the function of the market in a deregulated environment. No question that there will be shakeups ahead”, he said.
He said South Africa’s market would be characterised by new entries from time to time and other operators exiting, but entry was difficult — as indicated by the way Phoenix Airways had to cut back startup capacity.
Since its inception all eyes have been on no-frills Phoenix Airways. Phoenix manager for Johannesburg, Stephanie de Witt, is pleased about the high load factors the airline is presently achieving — with up to 100 percent full aircraft.
“We intentionally started with four flights because there is more demand in December, but we are a small airline without government backing and if something is running at a loss we are going to put a stop to it.”
She said the early morning flights during the two-week DCA official notice period were sold off as “early bird specials”. These flights did very well then because of the cut in frequency, the airline’s January load factors were slightly higher than that of December.
Sun Air general manager Glenn Orsmond was also pleased with the performance of his airline.
“The return on the expansion of the Johannesburg -Cape Town route has exceeded our wildest dreams. Our load factors were between 85 and 90 percent up to the second week in February”, he said and added that all Sun Air business and leisure routes were doing well.
SAA public relations officer Anelda Duvenage says that things are “looking better now”.
SPORT