Looking to book a flight for your festive break? You’re a lot more spoilt for choice this week than last, thanks to Kulula reopening bookings for flights from December, along with newbie airline Lift.
Increased supply means lower prices, which South Africans can certainly use, after a year largely defined by various forms of deprivation.
It’s for that reason that FlySafair — which has since the gradual resumption of domestic flights in June been operating 76% of the domestic seat capacity — on Monday staged a one-day sale, offering a 30% discount on tickets for flights departing until March 27 next year.
“We’re expecting that the injection of 47% more capacity into the market in December will serve to drop prices by about 30%, so we had that sale to try to stimulate that a bit quicker,” said FlySafair’s chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon.
“The reality is that airfares are set by the forces of supply and demand — more capacity means more supply, which drives prices down.”
FlySafair is flying at 100% capacity in November.
“We literally have no more supply to add to the market but demand is continuing to grow,” Gordon said. “So we need more supply to be pumped into the market, which is why we are thrilled to see competitors, old and new, coming in.”
One of those competitors is Lift, with former Kulula joint CEO Gidon Novick taking up that role in this new maverick low-cost airline.
Lift will take to the skies from December 10, operating up to seven flights daily on the Johannesburg-Cape Town route — 12th busiest in the world — as well as the Joburg-George routes.
The airline will give commitment-wary air travellers what they want, according to Novick — flexibility.
“That usually comes at premium price but not in our case,” he told TimesLIVE.
Ticket holders can make as many changes as they like and can cancel up to 24 hours before departure, for a full credit.
Ticket sales are due to open on Tuesday, but the airline’s website remains inaccessible at the time of writing. Novick said that would be remedied during the course of Tuesday afternoon.
Kulula’s green planes will take off on December 1 after many months of being grounded. But the scores of people holding Kulula tickets for flights which were cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown won’t be able to use that ticket value towards a booking for festive season flights.
“Comair will only be able to accommodate customers who are holding an unused ticket between January 11 2021 and November 30, 2021,” the company says on its website under FAQ.
That’s because Kulula will be operating a limited schedule with limited aircraft during December 2020, Comair explained.
The company is currently in business rescue.
There are currently 650,000 domestic seats available in total, with Lift and Kulula set to add another 300,000 from next month, Gordon says, hence that 47% growth prediction.
“This will serve to moderate pricing nicely, which is important.”
Flights are on offer from about R1,400-R1,500 on FlySafair, Lift and Kululu for mid-December between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Commenting on consumer criticism that FlySafair fares have been “ridiculous” lately, Gordon said its September to November fares were 9.7% higher than the same period last year, “which is not a significant leap, especially when you consider inflation”.
“But what we are seeing is that the booking curve is much, much, shorter than it was pre-Covid,” he said. “People are waiting until the last minute to book and we all know that flights get more expensive closer to departure.”
A lot of capacity is being added the Joburg-George route for December, Kirby said. “The Garden Route is likely to really pump and given the large supply, prices are expected to be very reasonable.”
FLIGHT SPECIALS
For the sake of comparison, this is what a flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town costs today, for a departure in the afternoon or evening of December 15, which is when the festive season kicks off for many South Africans. It’s impossible to do a precise comparison, as the competing airlines have different flight schedules.
- FLYSAFAIR:
- Flights departing 14:25 and 17:05: R1,822
- 19:20: R1,622
- 20:30: R1,422
- LIFT:
- 13:30 and 16:30 departures: R1,465 (fares sourced from CEO Gidon Novick)
- KULULA:
- Flights departing 13:40 and 15:30: R1,526
- 18:30: R1,411
- MANGO: Flight departing 18:00: R1,664
- AIRLINK:
- Direct flights sold out.
- Via Kimberley at 15:30: R2,945
- CEMAIR:
- Flights on December 14, 15 and 16 are sold out.
- Flight on Sunday December 13 “from R1,974” and
- on Thursday December 17 “from R2,550”.
GET IN TOUCH: Wendy Knowler specialises in consumer journalism. You can reach her via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler
