https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Two SA airlines initiate and announce new domestic routes

28th August 2015

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

Font size: - +

South African low cost airline Mango, part of the State-owned South African Airways (SAA) group, has announced that it is to initiate a new route between Gauteng’s Lanseria International Airport and Durban in October and will add another flight on its Lanseria/Cape Town route. Lanseria lines south-west of Pretoria and north-west of Johannesburg.

“Demand at Lanseria has shown welcome growth over the past 24 months, with well performing load factors across the schedule and we expect the additional Cape Town flight as well as the new Durban route to mirror performance at Lanseria and further stimulate growth,” states Mango spokesperson Hein Kaiser. The new Durban route will be operated twice daily, while the new Cape Town frequency is an early morning flight from Cape Town to Lanseria.

The additional flights will also mean that Mango will be making greater use of its aircraft. “A fundamental cornerstone of low cost aviation is asset utilisation; if you are not flying, you are not earning,” he explains. “Mango holds the lowest cost base in the domestic market and additional frequencies and network expansion further reduces input costs.” The airline reports that it has been listed several times as being one of the top five airlines in the world in terms of asset utilisation and efficiency. During the past six months, Mango has flown a monthly average of 1 500 flights, carrying 220 000 passengers, resulting in an average load factor of 82%.

“Mango is geared for further growth,” he states. “While trading conditions remain tough and some competitors have had to adopt a flexible schedule as a consequence, our average load factors have shown that there remains opportunity for business development, in particular our expansion out of Lanseria.”

The airline intends to employ more aircraft on its operations before the end of this year. More acquisitions and increased operations are planned for the next two years. Mango has been operating scheduled services out of Lanseria for five years now. These complement flights between Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport and Cape Town and between OR Tambo and Durban. Other Mango destinations are Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth and George. The airline operates a fleet comprising entirely Boeing 737-800 airliners, with a passenger capacity of 186 each.

Meanwhile, private sector South African regional airline Airlink has started scheduled flights between Pretoria’s Wonderboom National Airport and Cape Town. The creation of the new route was announced by Airlink in May, in conjunction with SAA, with which Airlink has a strategic partnership and for whom Airlink acts as a feeder airline. Wonderboom lies in the north-east of greater Pretoria/Tshwane.

Airlink’s Pretoria/Cape Town route is the first scheduled airline operation out of Wonderboom, which has recently been upgraded. It will be operated three times daily, in each direction. The airline links some 35 destinations in nine African countries, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Airlink currently has a fleet of 40 aircraft, comprising both turboprop (propellor-driven) and jet aircraft. The turboprops comprise four Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX single-engined aircraft, each capable of taking a maximum of 12 passengers and seven BAE Systems Jetstream 4100 twin-engined regional airliners, each with a capacity of 29 passengers. The jet fleet comprises 17 Embraer ERJ135LR twin-engined regional airliners, each with a capacity of 37 passengers and 12 four-engined BAE Systems Avro RJ85 regional airliners, each capable of carrying 83 passengers.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

Showroom

GreaseMax
GreaseMax

GreaseMax is a chemically operated automatic lubricator.

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Flameblock
Flameblock

FlameBlock is a proudly South African company that engineers, manufactures and supplies fire intumescent and retardant products to the fire...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.068 0.121s - 157pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now