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Will 1time stage a comeback?

Cape Town - Qatar Airways obtained a licence to start operating domestic flights in SA – the bad news is that SA stands for Saudi Arabia!

All jokes aside, it’s worthwhile pondering the missed opportunities as a result of having a rule requiring 75% local ownership in order to operate scheduled flights in South Africa.

If not for the rule, we could have fastJet and FlySafair already operating in our skies and with little doubt cheaper flights as a result of the increased competition.  

What have we gained, other than the shareholder profit being earned by airlines in South Africa going to outsiders? And we know how meagre those profits are on average - airlines have historically been one of the worst investments to make.

Meanwhile, fastJet turned their attention to starting operations in Zambia. Once they get their air operator's certificate (AOC), it’s likely that they’ll start flying between Lusaka and Johannesburg, which is Zambia’s main aviation moneyspinner (another rumour is that Proflight Zambia are also thinking of starting this route). 

This will further eat into the profitable routes that South African Airways is operating in Africa (fastJet have already taken them on, on the JNB-DAR flight route). Perhaps it’s time that Mango Airlines is set loose to compete on more African routes, before fastjet takes too much of SAA’s lunch.

In addition to FlySafair and fastJet, 1time/Global Airways (in which Pak Africa and Global Aviation have a stake), and Skywise Airline want to start up shop.

So, which of these newcomers is going to be the first to get going?  It’s subject to speculation, but South Africa Travel Online believes that 1time’s plans show the most visible signs of rolling along smoothly.

1time Holdings gave away a 27% stake to Global Aviation and 45% to Pak Africa Aviation, in return for 100% of Global Airways, which is the holder of the all-important AOC. 

In December last year it was announced that Global Aviation had purchased 4 A320s which would be delivered in January and February 2014, and launch in March.

Earlier this month, an A320 landed at OR Tambo to operate under the Global Airways licence.

1time/Global Airways haven’t announced anything yet, but presumably this is the first of the 4 A320s it has ordered? If so, things are on schedule and going to plan to launch in March.

What about the others? It’s not clear whether FlySafair have to let the process for their last licence application run to an end before they start a new application for a scheduled flights licence.

Skywise have been very quiet for the last few months about their plans, but maybe they’ll start with a big bang once they get their licence. FastJet on the other hand have been very noisy about other happenings, but tjoepstil about their plans for SA domestic flights.

Reading the tea leaves as things stand, if that A320 was indeed for domestic Global Airways flights, they possibly have the edge on the rest of the field.

We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: 2014 is going to be another interesting year for aviation in South Africa.

 - Fin24



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