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Cape Town - When fastjet flight FN0201 lands at OR Tambo International Airport at about 11:45 on October 18, it will be the first “European style” low cost carrier to arrive in South Africa.
But don’t we already have a couple of (brightly coloured) low cost carriers in the country, you may ask?
Well yes, but the crucial difference is that in Europe, with the likes of Ryanair and easyJet leading the charge, it’s pretty much become standard for low cost carriers to offer absolutely no free hold baggage – if you want to check in bags, you will pay extra for it.
In fact, it’s not only the low cost carriers in Europe which charge for hold luggage – it’s become such a popular strategy in Europe that even British Airways offers “hand baggage only” fares on its European short-haul flights.
From a purely economic perspective this makes sense as the more weight a plane has to transport, the more jet fuel it burns in doing so.
Yet for some reason none of the South African airlines has been prepared to take the plunge and offer zero hold luggage for free. On SA's current low cost carriers - Mango and Kulula - passengers get a 20kg free baggage allowance.
Should one of the low cost carriers start dropping its advertised fare and charging for all checked-in baggage, it’s likely the other will follow suit quickly, as otherwise it will end up with a higher proportion of heavier, more costly passengers who have hold luggage.
On a fastjet flight “Anything bigger than hand baggage (56 x 45 x 25cm) will need to be checked in as hold baggage”. On a flight from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam, it costs R110 to buy up to 20kg weight (that’s if you pay online, R160 if you pitch up at the airport wanting to do that).
A fringe benefit of forcing passengers to let you know how much baggage they’re going to be taking is that there’s more opportunity to ship cargo about.
In June 2013, fastjet earned about $6 per passenger from ancillary revenue streams (which are largely baggage and flight change fees).
The one weight issue which even European airlines haven’t been prepared to go near is trying to differentiate airfares based on the weight of the passengers themselves.
In a study conducted by SouthAfrica.TO, a majority of South Africans over the age of 60 believe it’s acceptable to base airfares on passenger weight (but most under the age of 60 disagree).
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO. Opinions expressed are his own.
But don’t we already have a couple of (brightly coloured) low cost carriers in the country, you may ask?
Well yes, but the crucial difference is that in Europe, with the likes of Ryanair and easyJet leading the charge, it’s pretty much become standard for low cost carriers to offer absolutely no free hold baggage – if you want to check in bags, you will pay extra for it.
In fact, it’s not only the low cost carriers in Europe which charge for hold luggage – it’s become such a popular strategy in Europe that even British Airways offers “hand baggage only” fares on its European short-haul flights.
From a purely economic perspective this makes sense as the more weight a plane has to transport, the more jet fuel it burns in doing so.
Yet for some reason none of the South African airlines has been prepared to take the plunge and offer zero hold luggage for free. On SA's current low cost carriers - Mango and Kulula - passengers get a 20kg free baggage allowance.
Should one of the low cost carriers start dropping its advertised fare and charging for all checked-in baggage, it’s likely the other will follow suit quickly, as otherwise it will end up with a higher proportion of heavier, more costly passengers who have hold luggage.
On a fastjet flight “Anything bigger than hand baggage (56 x 45 x 25cm) will need to be checked in as hold baggage”. On a flight from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam, it costs R110 to buy up to 20kg weight (that’s if you pay online, R160 if you pitch up at the airport wanting to do that).
A fringe benefit of forcing passengers to let you know how much baggage they’re going to be taking is that there’s more opportunity to ship cargo about.
In June 2013, fastjet earned about $6 per passenger from ancillary revenue streams (which are largely baggage and flight change fees).
The one weight issue which even European airlines haven’t been prepared to go near is trying to differentiate airfares based on the weight of the passengers themselves.
In a study conducted by SouthAfrica.TO, a majority of South Africans over the age of 60 believe it’s acceptable to base airfares on passenger weight (but most under the age of 60 disagree).
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO. Opinions expressed are his own.
