FLYSAFAIR has called Mango
out on its decision to
“reduce fares across the
board, following [the] fuel price
benefit” starting with Cape
Town-Port Elizabeth, as a tactic
to compete with the newcomer
in the market.
Mango said in a statement:
“The airline will reduce its
fares on all routes, rolling
out with immediate effect.
The move comes as the
airline passes on benefits to
travellers following a recent
reduction in the cost of fuel,
despite currency weakness
continuing to impact input
costs.
“Travellers should expect
to pay from R395 [excluding
taxes] one way between Cape
Town and Port Elizabeth, while
reductions in fares across
all other network points will
be rolled out this week [from
February 2].”
Dave Andrew, ceo of
FlySafair, has commented on
the announcement, saying
Mango’s attempt points to
FlySafair’s success. “The
decision by Mango to copy
our lowest pricing of R399,
to within R5, on the Cape
Town to Port Elizabeth route
is the perfect illustration of
how FlySafair is fast becoming
the consumer’s champion by
driving the cost of air travel
down in South Africa.”
Dave adds that, before
FlySafair operated on the CPTPLZ
route, the cheapest fare
on that route from Mango (as
of July 22, 2014) was R830,
and the average fare between
October and March 2015 was
around R1 400. “FlySafair’s
R399 fare represented a 52%
reduction on Mango’s then
cheapest offering.”
Mango spokesperson, Hein
Kaiser, insists the current
price reduction is in response
to the dropping fuel price. “We
are reducing fares across all
classes and all routes. Several
flights between JNB and CPT
are priced well below R1 000
[excluding taxes] too and this
is possible due to Mango’s
unhedged fuel position.”
In his presentation of the
SAA group’s financial results at
the recent AGM, cfo,
Wolf Meyer, said SAA’s
domestic operations remained
profitable for the year ending
March 2014, with 10% growth
in its profit contribution from
R722m to R791m. “SAA’s
domestic performance was
driven by less competition and
strong Mango growth.”
In terms of how well FlySafair
routes have been performing,
Dave says: “Over the busy
summer holidays we had an
average load factor across all
routes of just under 80%. Our
latest on-time performance
(OTP) stats show that we
achieved 94,7% in January,
and our OTP since starting
operations
