South Supreme launches Juba-Khartoum flights

According to eTurboNews, South Sudan’s South Supreme Airlines recently launched its first commercial flight between Juba, South Sudan, and Khartoum, Sudan.

 

The South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority was established at the end of February. It licensed SSA and granted the airline its air operator certificate before giving it designated carrier status for flights to Khartoum.

 

South Supreme is currently using an Antonov A26 to service the route, but is reportedly looking to lease B737-300 aircraft for the flights to Khartoum and other destinations in East Africa.

 

In the same report, RwandAir is said to have settled on a date for the launch of its flights to Juba – 21 September. The flight from the Rwandan capital of Kigali will be made on the airline’s new CRJ900NextGen airplane, providing both Business and Economy class options for passengers.

 

According to the Senior Manager Sales Alice Katiti, fares will start at $350 for a return flight. This route will connect South Sudan with East Africa, Johannesburg, Dubai, Brazzaville, Libreville, Lagos and Accra, with Douala and Abidjan coming on line soon, too.

 

The report also revealed that Mango, one of South Africa’s low-cost carriers, will be adding a second weekly flight from Johannesburg to Zanzibar, from 21 September.

New planes for Mango

South African low-cost airline Mango will receive two new Boeing 737-800s in August. The fleet additions will sport the first set of new-look, environmentally friendlier seats.

Additional flights are scheduled for the Johannesburg-Durban, Durban-Cape Town and Cape Town-Johannesburg routes.

Mango is currently investigating both new domestic routes and regional destinations.

“We have applied for a schedule operation to two East African destinations and are presently in the final planning stages for a seventh domestic port,” said CEO Nico Bezuidenhout.

Mango currently operates charter flights to Zanzibar on behalf of tour operator AfricaStay.

The new seats will save approximately 820 kilograms in aircraft weight, resulting in overall emission reductions of up to 1,7 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, upon completion of the seat replacement programme. The existing fleet will be added to the programme once the new planes are in operation.

Mango has already reduced fleet weight by 270 kilograms per aircraft, with overall weight savings of the new fleet additions amounting to 1,090 kilograms each.

Mango will also launch a Durban base later this year, with permanently stationed aircraft enabling the airline to provide an improved schedule to and from the city.

Mango Launches Zanzibar Flights

According to News24, South African low-cost carrier Mango, in association with travel agency AfricaStay, will operate charter flights to Zanzibar from 12 March, with an aircraft capacity of 185 passengers. The charters will be operated with a B737-800 on Tuesdays, with a similar slot to the Zanzibar flights formerly operated by now defunct budget airline 1time. Cobus Vermeulen, sales and marketing director for AfricaStay, told Tourism Update that the flights would be well priced and would be cheaper than indirect services. A Saturday-operated flight is also planned for December. Precision Air is the only other airline to operate the route from South Africa, with a Friday flight from Johannesburg to Zanzibar.

Mango Launches Apps

Mango has become the first South African domestic carrier to offer an App on the Apple platform. The product is available from the App Store. 

The airline plans to make the App available across most other mobile platforms during the next couple of months. In October last year, Mango launched the country’s first airline mobi-site with a booking functionality.

 Users will be able to book, pay, change flights, receive updated airline communication and participate in promotions, among others functions. An information wallet will also allow users to store generic travel detail for future ease-of-use. 

Since the launch of its mobi-site, Mango has logged in excess of 30,000 flight queries via the platform. Currently usage via Apple platforms dominates device types used, ranking at 60% of enquiry volume.

Free Holiday Season W-Fi for Mango Flyers

G-Connect in-flight Wi-Fi will be available free of charge to Mango customers on all enabled flights between Durban and Johannesburg, in both directions. The airline’s Wi-Fi service was launched in May this year. The gratis period takes place during December, through to 31 January 2013. Mango expects to transport more than 75,000 customers on the Durban and Johannesburg route between 11 December and 31 January 2013. With an up-time of over 95% and average speeds of 1Mbs on enabled aircraft, the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi service exceeds many terrestrial line speeds. Next year, Mango and G-Connect plan to introduce on-demand entertainment, live television and limited games across its In-Flight Wi-Fi network. Recently, Mango became the first South African airline to offer a booking and payment channel through its mobi site, with plans afoot to launch an iPad application soon.

Mango Launches New Routes

Low-cost South African airline, Mango will begin operating daily return flights between Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, as well as Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, from 5 December. A leased-in aircraft will initially be used to operate one return flight daily between the respective cities until early next year, when Mango expects to add additional capacity to its own fleet.
 “There is a requirement for a low-cost carrier on the Johannesburg-Port Elizabeth and Cape Town-Port Elizabeth routes, and with the recent exit of capacity, Mango has brought forward its plans by a few months in order to accommodate market demand,” said CEO Nico Bezuidenhout.
 He added that the new route is one of several planned for the next 18 months, with a focus on the east-African seaboard. Mango’s first flight between Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth will depart on 5 December.

Comair and Mango Go Head to Head

A fight is brewing between the remaining two competitors in the South African budget airline space. Against the background of the recent filing for liquidation by 1Time and the debate that has ensued over the role of state-subsidised Mango, Comair Limited has highlighted that Mango, as a separate legal entity from SAA and a state-owned enterprise, is legally required to publish its financial statements, which it allegedly has not done since its inception six years ago.
 Comair operates kulula.com and British Airways in the local market, and says that it believes that the funding of Mango with tax payers money partly contributed to the failure of 1Time. Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout has responded by stating that Mango will only reveal its financials, if kulula does so first. CEO of Comair, Erik Venter responded that Comair, as a listed company on the JSE, releases detailed financial results every six months in accordance with the Companies Act, the rules of the JSE and based on International Financial Reporting Standards.
 “Comair has an obligation to reveal its results as a listed company,” said Venter. “Kulula.com is merely a brand of Comair Limited – it is not a separate company from Comair. Although Mango is a subsidiary of SAA, it is a separate company and needs to report as such.” No doubt, this is not the last we are going to hear of South Africa’s two budget airlines going head to head, as the competition whittles away and the fight over the remaining piece of the pie intensifies.

Comair Take on 1Time Liquidation

South African aviation company Comair has responded to the news that budget airline 1Time filed for liquidation on Friday.

In the process, Comair pointed out that 10 of the 11 independent, private airlines launched in South Africa since deregulation in 1991, have failed, leaving only kulula.com and British Airways, which are both operated by Comair.

“Due to the less efficient fleet it operated, the ultimate closure of 1Time was inevitable,” said Erik Venter, CEO of Comair.

“However, we are certain that in the absence of state-subsidised Mango, 1Time would have made adequate profits to upgrade its fleet and be sustainable over the long term.

Based on the previously released financial statements of SAA, and recent parliamentary comments, Mango made a loss of half a billion rand since its 2006 launch, due to undercutting the viability of the private low cost carriers.” 1Time announced on Friday that it had applied for business liquidation, and that all of its flights had been grounded.

The firm had about R320-million in short-term debt and had been in negotiations with creditors since March.

Mango Makes Bloem Changes

South African low-cost airline, Mango, has announced that it is making changes to its Bloemfontein services.The airline will stop operating between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein effective 19 July, as a result of the route being “over-traded”. 
It has also unveiled plans to grow its Cape Town-Bloemfontein service over the next 18 months as a result of growing demand, increasing flights from five to six a week.
 “The success of Bloemfontein-Cape Town highlights the incredible opportunity that low-cost carriers offer to under-serviced routes,” said CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout. The airline also plans to turn the route into its second dedicated G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi sector by September, when the majority of its fleet will be online.

SA First for Mango

 In a first for South Africa, Wireless G, together with budget airline Mango and cellphone giant Vodacom, have launched Wi-Fi in the sky. By using G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi, Mango passengers can now surf the web when travelling between South Africa’s major centres. G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi allows for full Internet connectivity on board Mango’s aircraft, including sending and receiving emails, web browsing, and the use of all social networks. An air-to-land SMS service will also be available, managed through a web service.

The service is compatible with most Wi-Fi enabled devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops. There are three different packages on offer. One-Way Access is priced at R50 per single sector flight with a One Day pass available at R90, irrespective of the number of flights completed during a 20-hour period. A per-minute option, billed through G-Connect online account, offers land and air convergence at R1 per minute. All three packages offer unlimited data use during the allotted time. Data-heavy services like YouTube and peer-to-peer downloads will, however, be disallowed. The roll-out of the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi service should see 80% of Mango’s fleet online by the end of June 2012.