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Cape Town - Are we seeing signs of a truce between Airlink and SA Express?
SA Express, which at the end of September announced they were launching flights on Airlink monopoly routes (Cape Town to George, Johannesburg to Nelspruit and Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg), said it is “not aiming to start a price war with Airlink”.
“As an airline, we are continuously looking for innovative ways to be responsive to our passengers’ needs”, said SA Express GM for commercial Brian van Wyk.
He said South Africa needs a competitive market that can contribute towards economic growth and present consumers with lower fares.
“We believe we can offer a better product at a more competitive price”.
“Our studies show that there is enough passenger growth and market demand for another operator to fly these routes, and we believe that by offering competitive fares, we will stimulate demand and make these routes even more popular than they currently are,” van Wyk explained.
He added that the airliner's turbo prop Dash 8 Q400 gives it an edge.
“We have very fuel-efficient aircrafts that make our cost-per-seat prices more reasonable, so we will provide a much cheaper fare than the current operators.”
SA Express also welcomed the news that Airlink is going to be flying their routes from Johannesburg to Richards Bay and Johannesburg to Kimberley.
The skirmish bewteen the airliners started at the end of September, when SA Express announced they were launching flights on some routes where Airlink had previously been the sole carrier.
A little price war broke out, particularly on the Cape Town to George route, where prices have dropped below economically sustainable levels.
Earlier this month, Airlink expressed unhappiness with SA Express flying the same routes.
“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," it said at the time.
"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.”
SA Express said that Airlink previously held a monopoly in these markets and the competition does not fall foul of any provision of the competition law.
*Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO. Opinions expressed are his own.
SA Express, which at the end of September announced they were launching flights on Airlink monopoly routes (Cape Town to George, Johannesburg to Nelspruit and Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg), said it is “not aiming to start a price war with Airlink”.
“As an airline, we are continuously looking for innovative ways to be responsive to our passengers’ needs”, said SA Express GM for commercial Brian van Wyk.
He said South Africa needs a competitive market that can contribute towards economic growth and present consumers with lower fares.
“We believe we can offer a better product at a more competitive price”.
“Our studies show that there is enough passenger growth and market demand for another operator to fly these routes, and we believe that by offering competitive fares, we will stimulate demand and make these routes even more popular than they currently are,” van Wyk explained.
He added that the airliner's turbo prop Dash 8 Q400 gives it an edge.
“We have very fuel-efficient aircrafts that make our cost-per-seat prices more reasonable, so we will provide a much cheaper fare than the current operators.”
SA Express also welcomed the news that Airlink is going to be flying their routes from Johannesburg to Richards Bay and Johannesburg to Kimberley.
The skirmish bewteen the airliners started at the end of September, when SA Express announced they were launching flights on some routes where Airlink had previously been the sole carrier.
A little price war broke out, particularly on the Cape Town to George route, where prices have dropped below economically sustainable levels.
Earlier this month, Airlink expressed unhappiness with SA Express flying the same routes.
“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," it said at the time.
"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.”
SA Express said that Airlink previously held a monopoly in these markets and the competition does not fall foul of any provision of the competition law.
*Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO. Opinions expressed are his own.
