Local travellers may need to book their December domestic flights earlier rather than later.
After over two years of limited travel, foreign visitors are already booking their December holiday trips to South Africa – and with a longer lead time than was evident in 2019, according to a report by Sojern, a global digital marketing solutions provider for the travel industry.
The report says domestic tourists are booking their local flights much closer to their departure dates than they did pre-pandemic. With local air capacity severely constrained since the bankruptcy of Comair, which removed two airlines – BA Comair and kulula – South Africans with their late booking habit could now run the risk of finding all the capacity already taken by internationals.
Sojern reports that just under 40% of international travellers coming to South Africa are booking their travel more than three months in advance, as opposed to two to three months in 2019.
The report shows that 8% of travellers from Europe have already started planning their December holiday trips to South Africa, and 7% of travellers from other international regions have booked their trips to South Africa.
Other air travel insights from the report include:
* In May 2022, flight bookings (domestic and international) were up 25% on 2021 levels.
* Some destinations in South Africa are recovering faster than others. Destinations like Kimberley and Bloemfontein are up YoY, but are still a long way off their 2019 booking and search volumes.
* Flight prices are volatile. COVID-19 caused a drastic drop in inbound flight prices.
* International fares into South Africa are now in fact higher than their 2019 levels.
* Domestic travel is still booming – 49,9% of flight bookings are by locals wanting to travel within South Africa, demonstrating how crucially important domestic travel is. The UK market is second, at 9,3%, with the US ranking third at 5,4%, followed by Germany (4%) and Zimbabwe (2,5%).
To read the full report, click HERE.
