Low-cost airline Mango expects to post a profit for the past financial year, the airline said on Sunday.

Mango celebrated several milestones in its near decade-long history on Sunday, CEO Nico Bezuidenhout said in a statement.

“Mango marks its 9th anniversary today [Sunday], as well as carrying 15 million guests over more than 115 000 flights since first taking to the skies on 15 November 2006. The airline, profitable in seven out of eight full fiscals completed, also expects to announce a profit for the financial year ending March 2015 in the not too distant future. This, despite an oversubscribed market and challenging economic conditions.

“Despite current market conditions we expect a positive holiday season ahead. Advance bookings for the December period are following a similar pattern as recent years.

“Stays are definitely shorter than they were five or six years ago, but high load factors remain over peak times. In fact, demand indicates that several additional flights will be added on trunk routes during busy periods, with Cape Town and George notably growing in popularity among holidaymakers,” he said.

Flights to Zanzibar were performing well and more flights may be offered as demand strengthened. Despite exchange rate problems, Zanzibar still offered exceptional value get-aways with popularity continually growing. Mango’s network load factor was expected to average 90 percent during the season.

“Nine years ago Mango launched with what was then the largest e-commerce event in the country, with more than 10,000 online enquiries per minute registered after going on sale at the end of October 2006.

“Over the past nine years Mango has thrived. Its solid business model coupled with ongoing innovation and operational efficiencies has seen the business go from strength to strength. What started out as a small airline with a fleet of four aircraft has become one of the country’s most recognised brands and a significant role player in domestic air travel,” Bezuidenhout said.

Mango currently operated a permanent fleet of 10 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, in addition to ad-hoc leased capacity to cater for demand-peaks.

Despite ongoing economic problems and new market entrants toward the end of the 2014 calendar year and in early 2015, Mango continued to deliver a solid performance and continued to lead South African aviation industry metrics, as it related to people and aircraft productivity alongside unit costs. On-time performance had remained consistent.

“Mango’s key metrics benchmark favourably against the world’s very best airlines. In less than a decade Mango has more than doubled its fleet, increased its network destinations by 150 percent, and operates an average of 1500 flights a month. The company also leads the market in the area of socio-economic transformation, being the only airline in South Africa with a BBBEE level two rating.”

Mango employed a workforce of 700 people and supported an equivalent number of jobs in supplier companies, to which Mango had dispersed in excess of R10 billion over the past nine years, in additions to the more than R2 billion the company had paid in airport and other taxes.

The year ahead would be tough, with a contracting market struggling to support the injection of start-up competitive capacity.

“Yet, Mango has the strategy, the people, the resources, and the sheer willpower not only to sustain the airline through a turbulent economy and challenging commercial environment but it will thrive,” Bezuidenhout said.