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Johannesburg - For many years there hasn’t been much to say about the Cape Town to George flight route, other than that Airlink was the only airline flying it.
All of this changed at the end of September, when SA Express shocked the industry by announcing flights from Cape Town to George in direct competition with Airlink.
Before the SA Express announcement, a one-way flight from Cape Town to George with Airlink cost R570 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges).
SA Express then had an opening special of R300 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges) on the route, and Airlink has now responded with an astonishingly low R40 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges) one-way fee from Cape Town to George.
Before you rush off to buy your ticket, please note that this translates into a total one-way fee of R918 (after taxes and fuel surcharges have been added to the R40).
The situation is not as bad as it seems considering that fuel surcharges comprise R716 of the R918 fare, but current fares are probably below the break-even point for the carriers, and it will be interesting to see how long they are prepared to run losses on the route.
Previously Airlink has had a very close relationship with the state-owned carriers, and still even uses the same flight booking engine. This means that when somebody uses the SA Express flight booking engine, they will see lower Airlink prices and probably choose to book with Airlink.
Airlink has expressed unhappiness at SA Express going into competition with them: “While Airlink welcomes competition on any of its routes on a fair and equal basis, we feel strongly about being taken on by a technically insolvent State Owned airline using the taxpayer’s funds to compete with us unequally.
"Airlink is in its own right a taxpayer contributing more than R400m in taxes (VAT, PAYE, and Corporate Tax) annually to the Fiscus, and it is ironic that the State sees it fit to use taxpayer’s funds to compete with its bona fide taxpayers," it said in a statement.
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO.
All of this changed at the end of September, when SA Express shocked the industry by announcing flights from Cape Town to George in direct competition with Airlink.
Before the SA Express announcement, a one-way flight from Cape Town to George with Airlink cost R570 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges).
SA Express then had an opening special of R300 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges) on the route, and Airlink has now responded with an astonishingly low R40 (excluding taxes/fuel surcharges) one-way fee from Cape Town to George.
Before you rush off to buy your ticket, please note that this translates into a total one-way fee of R918 (after taxes and fuel surcharges have been added to the R40).
The situation is not as bad as it seems considering that fuel surcharges comprise R716 of the R918 fare, but current fares are probably below the break-even point for the carriers, and it will be interesting to see how long they are prepared to run losses on the route.
Previously Airlink has had a very close relationship with the state-owned carriers, and still even uses the same flight booking engine. This means that when somebody uses the SA Express flight booking engine, they will see lower Airlink prices and probably choose to book with Airlink.
Airlink has expressed unhappiness at SA Express going into competition with them: “While Airlink welcomes competition on any of its routes on a fair and equal basis, we feel strongly about being taken on by a technically insolvent State Owned airline using the taxpayer’s funds to compete with us unequally.
"Airlink is in its own right a taxpayer contributing more than R400m in taxes (VAT, PAYE, and Corporate Tax) annually to the Fiscus, and it is ironic that the State sees it fit to use taxpayer’s funds to compete with its bona fide taxpayers," it said in a statement.
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO.
