Domestic airline LIFT has increased its capacity and number of aircraft since it first launched its services in December 2020, despite facing several major headwinds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the Q&A below, co-founder and CEO of LIFT, Jonathan Ayache, shares news on the airline’s growth plans.
Q: Can you share your plans for increased capacity?
A: LIFT is adding four Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet. And we are using flexible capacity, to easily be able to increase or decrease flights based on demand. We have expanded our route network with the launch of both the Johannesburg-Durban route and most recently, the Durban-Cape Town route.
We’re on track to increase our available seat capacity to ±1,5 million seats in 2023, a huge increase from 370 000.
Q: On which routes are you adding the increased seat capacity?
A: Late last year we had already added capacity across all the routes we currently fly. LIFT has grown its fleet from two to six aircraft over the last six months.
This growth in our fleet and route network will increase seat capacity on all routes between the three largest cities in South Africa, which account for approximately 75% of all domestic passenger volumes.
The increase in our passenger volumes will be driven primarily by increasing our fleet and flights on existing routes.
Q: Will you be increasing your staff to cope with the increase in capacity?
A: We’re grateful that our fleet growth has also meant we can grow our team by over 100 people and create jobs in a travel sector that has been especially hard hit in the last few years.
Q: What are your current biggest challenges?
A: Challenges we need to navigate include the general macro environment, high inflation, low economic growth and infrastructural deficiencies and knock-on effects of load shedding.
The biggest challenge we’ve faced as an industry is the cost of jet fuel, which is one of our largest operational expenses and almost three times higher than it was when LIFT launched.
Rand weakness is also a challenge. Three of our largest operational costs are denominated or driven by the rand/US$ exchange rate – fuel, aircraft leases and insurance.
While addressing the causes of load shedding and achieving a reliable energy supply remains a top priority, another crucial sector in our economy that the airline industry supports is the tourism sector. According to [then] Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu, in 2021 the tourism sector contributed 3,7% to GDP, down from ±8% of GDP pre-COVID. Even at the lower levels, this is still above manufacturing, agriculture and construction.
The recovery of the airline industry is under way but we’re not there yet and global consensus is that we won't see a full recovery until the end of 2023.
Q: Is LIFT looking to add more routes?
A: We’re always keeping an eye on growth opportunities but are very responsible in how we approach that, as building a sustainable airline industry is crucial.
The domestic market has still only recovered to ±75% of pre-COVID passenger volumes compared with 2019. Despite all the challenges, LIFT has done exceptionally well and entrenched itself as a favourite and preferred airline for many South Africans due to its focus on the customer experience and complete flexibility, allowing passengers to change and cancel without any penalties.
