Barely a month passes in South Africa without fresh news of additional competition in the low-cost airline space. The business reaper has been unkind to the sector in the past 36 months, having claimed the scalps of Nationwide, Velvet Sky and 1Time respectively.
Rumours began circulating earlier this year that former executives of 1Time were staging a revival of the brand shortly after liquidation, but as of yet, nothing has materialised.
Now, a band of completely new players in the market has entered stage left, and has announced that they will be in the sky by the “last quarter” of this year, with ticket sales set to get underway as early as next month.
The FlySafair fleet will be comprised of a total of two Boeing aircraft, and will operate daily flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg. The route is one of the busiest domestic flight paths in the world.
So where’s the money coming from?
This, from News24:
Safair has a 75% South African shareholding, with the other 25% owned by the Irish ASL Aviation Group. It has specialised in aircraft leasing, maintenance and chartering across the African continent, including the commercial support of local airlines.
Excellent. The more, the merrier.
[Source : News24]
