FASTJET will reintroduce
direct flights between
Johannesburg and Victoria
Falls on July 31. Ceo of
fastjet, Nico Bezuidenhout,
says the reintroduction of the
route is one of the steps in
the fulfilment of the airline’s
stabilisation plan.
The carrier will also be
bulking up its HRE-VFA route
with daily and, at times,
twice-daily frequencies.
Its HRE-JNB route will be
boosted with a fourth flight
on peak-demand days. In
addition to its existing fleet,
the airline will deploy two
Embraer E145 aircraft on
these and local Zimbabwean
routes on July 31.
Another step in the
stabilisation plan was the
purchase of the airline’s
brand rights from easyGroup,
fastjet’s publicly listed
company on the London
Stock Exchange, which
remains a shareholder of
the airline. Nico says the
purchase will allow the airline
to build a tangible brand –
“the African low-cost airline
for everyone”.
He says the possibility of
adding new routes is also
on the horizon. “We will
potentially be moving further
south and crossing the
continent toward the western
seaboard.”
Tickets for JNB-VFA are
currently on sale. The
schedule is as follows:
On Mondays and
Thursdays, flight 8501 will
depart VFA at 12h10 and
arrive in JNB at 13h45.
Flight 8502 will depart JNB
at 14h10 to arrive in VFA at
15h50. On Sundays, flight
8501 will depart VFA at
13h35 and arrive in JNB at
15h10. Flight 8502 will
depart JNB at 15h35 to
arrive in VFA at 17h15.
The JNB-VFA route was
suspended in January.
The decision was part of
the same stabilisation
plan, which required a full
overhaul of the business,
says Nico. The plan was
implemented when the
business found itself
in trouble in mid-2016.
“Fastjet’s capacity exceeded
demand in many of its
markets and immediate
contraction, fleet changeouts
and a reimagining of
the business were required
to make it sustainable,”
he says.
