The grounding of Kulula and British Airways flights has left a 40% gap in domestic seat capacity leaving other airlines to try and adjust.
South African airlines are struggling to make up for the 40% loss in domestic seat capacity since local airline Comair grounded flights at the start of June, with no short-term solution on the horizon.
Comair went into business rescue in May 2020 after Covid-19 pandemic era lockdowns, travel bans, as well as rising fuel prices, wreaked havoc on the travel industry. The airline resumed flights in December 2020 while still in business rescue. Comair’s existing lenders and investors – a group of wealthy individuals who bailed out the airline in 2020 – aren’t prepared to put in more funds, he said at the time.
The country’s biggest union – the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa – is less optimistic, however, telling EWN on Tuesday that Comair is weeks away from liquidation. FlySafair operates around 104 flights daily which equates to around 19,000 seats. In typical operating situations, Comair would make up 17,600 seats and the other airlines 7,500.
“An essential part of running an efficient airline is to ensure that you utilise your aircraft and available crew hours efficiently. Having aircraft standing around and crew not flying their full allocation of hours means additional costs, which in turn erodes profitability.
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