A NEW airline, Fly Modern Ark, hopes to
take to the skies in South Africa in the
next four months, operating on some
of the same routes as SA Express and
SA Airlink.
Founder of Fly Modern Ark, Theunis
Crous, told TNW he originally
approached SA Express with an
investment offer as well as Public
Enterprises Minister, Lynne Brown.
Both offers were ignored. “We wanted
to partner with SA Express, but we
can’t keep waiting,” says Theunis. The
airline has applied for and obtained
a licence and is also considering
integrating with the GDS.
Fly Modern Ark aims to offer
affordable fares from secondary
airports such as Queenstown and
Ladysmith, as well as from rural areas.
“We have ten 56-seat aircraft as well
as two cargo aircraft, which are able
to land just about everywhere, as long
as there is a landing strip,” explains
Theunis.
Fly Modern Ark has some Chinese
investors, but Theunis stresses that
the airline is fully South African owned
and run with a strong BB-BEE backing.
The investment structure is such that
it will be able to offer very low fares on
all its routes.
“We have 10 (passenger) aircraft, but
these aircraft are going to fly. We won’t
let them stand on the ground. Even if
it means we fly till 12 o’clock at night,”
says Theunis, adding that Fly Modern
Ark will be looking at routes such
as Umtata, East London, Kimberley,
Polokwane, Skukuza and even some
regional routes, including Swaziland
and Mozambique.
Rodger Foster, ceo and
md of SA Airlink, says it
sees every challenger as a
competitive threat, but at
the same time welcomes
competition as it can serve
to stimulate the market and
optimise service delivery. “We
do, however, have concerns
over the extent to which
markets become destabilised
during periods of competitive
sparring and, in particular, the
unfortunate consequences
that failed airline businesses
have on consumers.”
