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Johannesburg - Regional aviation group Comair said on Tuesday it would embark on an aggressive strategy to tackle routes into Africa, aiming to "chip away" market share from dominant state-owned airlines.
In "the next few months" Comair will simultaneously launch routes from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam and Walvis Bay, as it has already been granted permission to fly to those cities.
Comair joint CEO Gidon Novick said the new destinations would be launched with five weekly flights, while the company will increase to 10 its current seven flights a week to the Namibian capital Windhoek - also "within the next few months".
"If you look at the routes between the African countries, state-owned airline companies are very dominant and there is no competition from privately-owned companies," said Novick.
Comair is not going to wait for delivery of its recently ordered eight Boeing 737-800 aircraft - due from 2012 - but will make more effective use of its existing fleet to operate the new routes.
According to Novick, Comair is going to "keep chipping away" at those routes on which SAA are dominant. First of those will be the Dar es Salaam destination, on which SAA is the sole operator after the demise of the parastatal Air Tanzania about two years ago. "British Airways [franchise] is most suited to the business route, rather than [budget carrier] kulula.com," said Novick.
Bilateral state agreements between African countries generally favour state-owned airlines, limiting the role private capital can play in the aviation market. At the moment, Comair flies (with either the BA franchise or kulula.com) to Harare, Mauritius, Livingstone and Victoria Falls in southern Africa.
Its privately-owned competitor 1time Airlines is the only other operator flying to African countries, with flights to Zanzibar in Tanzania and Livingstone in Lusaka.
Comair recently entered into negotiations with Mozambican authorities to resume flights to the country's capital Maputo from Lanseria Airport. A few weeks ago, 1time announced it had already been granted permission to fly to Maputo from OR Tambo International Airport.
- Fin24.com