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Despite widespread media reports that fastjet will launch flights in South Africa this year, the airline’s CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout, told Tourism Update that the airline had no plans to expand locally just yet.
Bezuidenhout says the SA market is currently oversubscribed on certain trunk routes and the airline will not launch domestic operations next year.
Instead, fastjet is working on a stabilisation plan that will see it focus on its core markets – Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – and offer capacity where there is demand, says Bezuidenhout
“The airline expanded too quickly into some markets and introduced capacity that exceeded demand, which impacted its sustainability.” Fastjet will now reshape its fleet and refine its schedules to ensure medium- and long-term benefits, says Bezuidenhout.
The airline has cut three of its routes, including the indefinite suspension of its Johannesburg-Victoria Falls service, which it announced on November 28. As a consequence, agents’ confidence in the airline has declined with many saying they would not book fastjet unless they were forced to.
Jan Engelbrecht Klitzke, ITC of The Boyz Travel Merchants, says, as a rule, his company does not book airlines like fastjet until they are well established. He would rather lose the sale and have the client book online than be left with the headache of an airline going bust.
Reena Lallo, MD of Fast Link Travel, says she is nervous of booking with fastjet and advises her clients to pay a little more with alternative airlines.
Maro Kyprianides, MD of Tour Destinations International, says she will only book with the airline if her clients need to travel within the next few days, adding that it’s too risky to book the airline too far in advance out of fear of whether it would still be in operation.
Bezuidenhout says the travel trade is critical to any airline’s success and that fastjet plans to address any perceptions that may have impacted its relationship with agents and operators.
Sourse: tourismupdate.co.za
