KULULA.COM has
vowed to up its on-time
performance by putting
numerous procedures and
initiatives in place to minimise
delays.
A number of irate passengers
took to social media to express
their outrage, reporting delays
of up to six hours on domestic
flights during the festive
season.
Kulula.com head of
marketing, Shaun Pozyn,
confirmed to TNW that during
this period – December 1 to
January 5 – 215 flights (almost
10%) out of a total 2 195
flights were delayed by over
an hour.
Acsa’s on-time performance
statistics for December 2019
seem to confirm that flight
delays were a trend this
year as the December
2018 figure of 83,3% for all
scheduled domestic flight
slipped to 77,3%.
Statistics for the three lowcost carriers showed kulula.
com’s on-time performance
slip from 77,8% (year-to-date
2018) to 56,3%, Mango saw
a drop from 70,5% (2018) to
62,5% (2019) during the same
period while FlySafair saw a
marginal drop of 0,2% -- from
91,6% to 91,4%.
Shaun said all airlines
encountered delays from time
to time that were caused by
factors ranging from weather
and bird-strikes to operational
and technical factors. “A delay
on one of the sectors will
impact all the flights following
this. When this happens, we
work non-stop to minimise
the delay’s knock-on effect by
reducing the turn-around time
of the aircraft on the ground.”
He added that the airports
continuously communicated
with one another to ensure this
was expedited.
Head of sales and distribution
of FlySafair, Kirby Gordon,
agreed, telling TNW that most
airlines, but low-cost airlines in
particular, operated their flights
end-to-end.
“A lot of consumers don’t
really consider things in these
terms. They sort of assume
that we have an aircraft
standing around waiting for
the next flight, but in our world
there is literally 25 minutes
between when one flight arrives
and that aircraft departs on the
next flight,” he explained.
“Because of this, a single
delay can result in a knockon, domino-style effect, where
the second flight is delayed
because of the first and so on.
That’s why it’s so important
that your morning flights depart
on time and this is where
technical dispatch reliability
is so key.”
Mango gm commercial,
Noelan Rungasamy, said the
airline continued to work with
its various stakeholders to
improve service delivery.
“We have seen improvements
to our on-time performance,
due to various initiatives,
for the months of October
and November and our
performance for January is
currently above 80%.” She said
with a significantly increased
schedule to accommodate for
the high demand, the airline
experienced some unforeseen
disruptions in December.
