The Covid-19 pandemic will have finished bringing down some South African airlines, already in difficulty before the health crisis. Their number has almost halved since 2019, while others are trying to restructure.
From our correspondent in Johannesburg
Among the airlines that have survived the health crisis is Cemair, with its planes that serve medium-sized and tourist cities in the country. The company now intends to extend its offer. The pandemic will have made it possible to further liberalize the sector
« We are coming out of years of underpricing. There was too much capacity in the market, and the sector survived on subsidies, with the public carrier directly supported by the state budgetexplains Miles Van der Molen, the director of Cemair. Now we have to rely more on business levers. There were too many companies and I think economies of scale can be achieved with fewer but bigger companies. And this is true for South Africa, but also for the rest of the continent. »
The South African offer has changed a lot since 2019. After being on the verge of bankruptcy, the public company South Afrikans Airways (SAA) now operates on a much smaller scale. Others, like Mango or Comair, have ceased operations for the time being.
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Skyrocketing ticket prices
Even if the national demand is no longer as strong as before the Covid, these disappearances have led to a rise in prices, especially on last minute reservations. ” We have seen times when there were not enough seats to meet the demand and in these cases the prices tend to increaseremarked Aaron Munetsi, directeur d’AASA (Airlines Association Southern Africa). But this increase is not only due to the lack of supply, there are other factors, such as the geopolitical situation, the cost of fuel and the variation of the exchange rate in 2023 compared to last year.. All this contributed to an increase in ticket prices. »
A newcomer will nevertheless have appeared in the midst of a pandemic: Lift, which serves three of the country’s main cities. But even with this arrival, local prices should remain high, according to sector specialist Joachim Vermooten: “ Much of the domestic market was made up of business travelers. But this form of travel has been replaced by videoconferencing. However, this demand for business travel generated the largest part of the revenue. There are now fewer people who can pay more to compensate for cheaper seats. »
While they were eight to offer national passenger flights in 2019, these companies are now only five in number to operate.
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