Business in low-cost air travel appears to have boomed in the months since the airlines concerned embarked on a no-holds-barred tariff war.
On Tuesday kulula.com announced that it would be replacing its entire fleet of aircraft by the end of the year with new Boeing 737-400 aircraft, adding 160 000 additional seats to the market a year.
Rival airline Mango, which sparked off the competition with its low-price specials during its launch in November, reports that up to 90% of its seats are filled.
At the same time, 1time has announced plans to add new routes and increase flights.
”With the efficiency of our new fleet we will have the lowest costs in the industry, which will continue to allow us to offer consistently low airfares,” said Comair joint chief executive Gidon Novick. Comair operates kulula.com.
He said the latest of the new aircraft, bought at R90-million apiece, will arrive from Rio de Janeiro this week.
”The new aircraft are significantly more fuel efficient and have more seats, meaning we can carry more people more competitively,” he said.
The aircraft are second-hand but are being bought, rather than leased as previously.
Mango spokesperson Hein Kaiser said the airline is ”rocking”.
”Our January and February figures show a load factor of 85% to 90%.”
By the end of January, Mango had sold more than 500 000 tickets.
”A lot of our passengers are first-time flyers.
”This shows that Mango has done what it set out to do, which was to get more South Africans flying,” Kaiser said.
He said the airline was investigating introducing new routes, but said no decisions had been taken.
Meanwhile, 1time announced it would introduce two new routes by the end of March — a daily direct service between Cape Town and Durban, and weekend flights between Johannesburg and George.
It will also add a third weekly flight on Thursdays between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, the Johannesburg to Durban route will be increased to seven flights a day and the Johannesburg to Cape Town route increased to eight flights a day.
This will grow 1time’s available seats to 1,5-million for the year and flights will increase to 222 a week.
”We are very pleased with 1time’s growth. Since we launched nearly three years ago our low fares have dramatically stimulated the domestic air-travel market with many first-time flyers,” said Rodney James, marketing director of 1time. — Sapa