South Africa low-cost carrier FlySafair announced on Monday that the South African Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC) had approved the airline’s applications to operate flights to ten new destinations across Southern Africa. It already operates a twice-weekly service between South Africa and Mauritius, as well as domestic flights between Johannesburg (from and to both OR Tambo International Airport and Lanseria International Airport), Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, George and Port Elizabeth.

The carrier has been authorised to operate flights between South Africa’s two main air transport hubs (Johannesburg and Cape Town) and Gaborone (in Botswana), Livingstone and Lusaka (both in Zambia), Luanda (Angola), Maputo (Mozambique) and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe). It has also received approval to implement services between Johannesburg and Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), Nairobi (Kenya) and the Seychelles, and between Cape Town and Windhoek (Namibia).

"We're very excited about these opportunities,” highlighted FlySafair chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon. “We’ve been planning our expansion to more regional destinations for some time and are confident that we will continue to bring our same brand of hassle-free travel to passengers in these markets.”

“While this is a big milestone, there is still a fair amount of work ahead of us from an operational perspective,” he added. The airline would now work with the relevant civil aviation and airport authorities in each country and start the planning of flight schedules.

Since the start of this year, the carrier had obtained another four airliners to strengthen its fleet and so its operating schedule. A fifth airliner would be added during this coming January. This fleet increase was part of the airline’s long-term growth plan.

It had also applied to the ASLC for routes between Johannesburg and Harara (Zimbabwe), Windhoek, and Zanzibar (Tanzania), as well as for an increase in the number of flights it could operate to and from Mauritius. “By launching a host of new services, we hope to provide passengers with more options for air travel at a competitive price,” he affirmed. “Scheduling routes and frequencies, deploying aircraft and crew and managing resources are all part of a balancing act that determines operational success for airlines.”