Travellers have welcomed the addition of more flights between Durban and Johannesburg, starting later this month.
Lift Airline which started flying between Johannesburg and Cape Town in December 2020 will be launching a route between Durban and Johannesburg.
This comes at a time when the collapse of several airlines has left a shortage of seats in the market, pushing prices up sharply.
The first Lift flight between Johannesburg and Durban is expected to land at the King Shaka International Airport later this month.
Some travellers the SABC spoke to say more flights will give them more choices.
One passenger says, “If Lift comes in with compatible prices it will be excellent. We will obviously look forward to booking the cheapest flight available, and the flight that can obviously give service delivery.”
Another adds: “It’s gonna give some more room for people to have choices because at the moment we are so limited when it comes to travelling. It’s a big relief because there will be competition in terms of pricing and ticketing. And I find it very expensive to travel at the moment.”
A third traveller says, “Air travel specifically has become really prohibitive and I think the more competition there is, the more the better.”
CEO of Lift Airline, Jonathan Ayache, says the exit of Comair from the market has given them an opportunity to grow.
Ayache says they are now planning to fly between Durban and Cape Town as well.
“We had really a good opportunity in terms of the leasing of aircraft and also being able to hire some of the most talented people in the industry locally because they don’t have jobs, and so that was the entry point. I would say in terms of the closure that has happened more recently, they realise the entire market, we must remember that even as we sit today demand compared to previous COVID 2019 is only about 70% of those passenger volumes. So yes, there has been a reduction and the last few months in terms of the number of flights available but the market is far from recovery so that’s helped the market to stabilise.”
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