Travel agents have welcomed extra high-season flights and seat capacity between South Africa and popular long-haul destinations like the UK and the US over December and January. However, many also said access to inventory was still a major issue and that origin & destination (O&D) availability would make it even harder to compete this year.
The seasonal flights came as something of a relief – agents had battled and bemoaned the general lack of availability and the higher airfares throughout 2022, and airlines attributed this to a slow scaling back up after COVID-19.
Loosely translated, O&D availability affects where (ie - the ‘origin’ market) seats are displayed and at what price – (factors influencing this include currency exchange rates).
Jonathan Gerber, Travel Assignment Group (TAG) CEO, said travel agents in South Africa did not get access to seats at a similar price to agents in other markets and, he maintained, this is having a detrimental effect on the local travel trade.
“Why can’t a seat be for sale at a price across all markets? This is a big issue that the industry needs to fight for,” said Gerber.
According to Gerber, flights operating to the US and UK at the end of last year were full and, he said, any available seats were highly sought-after.
Sue Garrett, Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) GM Supply, Pricing and Marketing, also reported strong demand for the UK and US. The UK was FCTG’s top destination by mid-December, with the US in third place. “Although capacity on these routes has increased, and visa appointment challenges for the US have normalised, the demand for these routes means that availability of reasonable airfares is limited, especially during the busier holiday period,” she said.
Garrett said this came when many December/January holidaymakers were intending to reunite with friends and family after two years of no travel due to the pandemic.
FCTG’s ticket sales for London had recovered by 102% by the end of the latest financial year, Garrett said, while New York had recovered to 89% of pre-COVID levels. “We had expected the UK to recover faster, as the US experienced severe visa challenges in the year. We predict that 2023 will see recovery surpassing pre-COVID levels and availability constraints and ticket prices normalising somewhat, although this would always be dependent on global influences.”
Rachael Penaluna, Manager of Sure Maritime Travel in the Eastern Cape, said the “battle of the website” with airlines was only getting worse.
“More and more airlines are putting up, on their websites, significantly lower airfares for exactly the same routings than those displayed on the GDS. Often, availability is present on airline websites but not on the GDS. It is becoming a challenge for agents and their clients who do not want to book online,” she claimed.
Availability is still a critical issue for Penaluna. However, she reported much more demand for long-haul travel than in pre-COVID years and said that after the busy build-up to the December festive season, she had never seen flights so full.
“A lot of traffic is to the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia. We must not forget that last December, the UK shut us out again and most families have not seen their loved ones for close on three years now. A lot of family bookings were VFRs.”
