Jet fuel prices set to continue rising, increasing use of travel agents, ongoing recovery of the embattled aviation industry after Covid-19 and growing numbers of South Africans flying are the latest developments on the local travel scene.
Delivering the FlySafair 2024 report on current trends and developments in the aviation industry, FlySafair’s chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon announced the airline’s plans for this year, future prospects regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the state of the market and operating environment.
On the domestic travel front, he said, the number of seats sold per week was continuing to grow and was almost back to levels seen in 2019 before Covid-19 hit, which is regarded as the benchmark used to determine the extent of recovery.
“The market is looking strong. It’s almost back to what it was locally and globally, with some more green shoots here and there, like the fact that arrival figures in Cape Town in December were actually up on 2019.”
In terms of costs and pricing, he said airlines were generally struggling, with players coming and going. When Comair left the market in May 2022, he said the market took a year to recover. Despite market growth, airlines continued to battle for numerous reasons.
“The real story why prices haven’t come down is because input costs have rocketed. Between January and June 2022 the price of jet fuel escalated by 75% and the fuel price is still going up.”
Another interesting development, he said, was a huge movement towards travel agencies, with the spend on travel agents being higher than it was pre-pandemic.
“So we asked what it is that travel agents are doing right, and it seems that the complications in travel that they handle — such as visa requirements, cancellations, bookings and insurance — are all services that people want and the consumer is seeing definite value in this.
“An agent will find you the best fit solution and have far better insights on expectations vs reality when it comes to choosing where and what to book.”
This, Gordon said, followed the notable consumer trend in which people are generally spending more on service rather than goods, “in other words prioritising experiences over buying stuff”.
Commenting on his airline’s recent customer survey, he said: “Local travellers are back.” They were spending more on eating out, and 65% of those polled said they would be travelling again in less than a year.
The deferring of maintenance during the Covid-19 period was still being felt, he said, such as was seen with the complete breakdown of the baggage system at OR Tambo International Airport on December 22 last year.
Nothing is run by AI in South African aviation yet, but we are starting to see examples overseas.
— Kirby Gordon, FlySafair’s chief marketing officer
“The topic of the moment is how AI will feature in aviation. While I don’t think we will be seeing AI flying planes any time soon, it is already having a fundamental effect both in a commercial and practical capacity.”
He said chatbots were able to deal with customer calls, and Changi Airport in Singapore had already integrated it into security. AI’s ability to synthesise information out of huge amounts of data meant it could be used in many ways to monitor, record, create meaning and make predictions.
“Nothing is run by AI in South African aviation yet, but we are starting to see examples overseas,” he said, referring to AI’s ability to draw up crew shift rosters that enable airlines to maximise the shifts allocated to salaried crew members.
Gordon said 2024 would be a year of consolidation for FlySafair as they focus on maintaining stability in the business, focus on behind-the-scenes operations, and by gaining three new planes and losing two old ones, they will grow their fleet to 36 aircraft in total.
“We are not going to be the first in the market with the newest and latest plane, but we are in discussions with Boeing over the Max and are communicating with others. We are at the stage where we are looking around at what to shop for.”
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