Airfares on local flights should drop to more normal levels in February next year, said Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer of FlySafair.
Speaking to a press gathering on October 18, Gordon said it was volatility and constraint in the supply of airline seats that had led to the increase in the average cost of a flight ticket, and it was a temporary situation.
“We expect that airfares will really normalise in late January to early February,” said Gordon. “This will be a product of a natural lull in seasonal demand and, more significantly, an increase in the number of seats available in the market.” This is anticipated to bring fares back more in line with 2019 levels plus CPI increases, allowing for seasonality differences and, of course, the length of time between the booking and the flight.
The number of available domestic airline seats in South Africa went from 1,6m seats in January 2020, plummeting to 900 000 seats in May 2022 with the suspension of flights by Comair, followed by the announcement of its bankruptcy.
Things have improved since May, and FlySafair and other players have added flights since then. And FlySafair has committed to adding at least six additional Boeing 737-800s to its present fleet of 25 aircraft by the end of April next year.
“While we have been doing everything, we can to add capacity, it’s not something we can roll out at the drop of a hat. It takes a huge amount of planning to bring in a new aircraft. Everything from staffing resources to route scheduling is taken into consideration so as to ensure the best levels of efficiency across our network and, ultimately, the long-term sustainability of the airline.”
Gordon said FlySafair had operated over 5 450 flights last summer holiday between December 1 and January 31 – this works out to just under a million seats. This coming summer, the airline has increased this to 7 652 flights on the schedule, which equates to 1,4 million seats.
The airline’s staff complement has grown by over 18% in 2022.
The additional aircraft and flights slated for next year mean that FlySafair is in the process of recruiting new staff to support this additional capacity, including not only pilots and cabin crew, but staff within the airline’s ground operations including call centre, administration, maintenance and day-to-day operations.
This is great news for those people within the industry who lost their employment due to the downscaling and closure of several other airlines.
