1Time, the South African budget airline, has announced the resignation of CEO Rodney James. Michael Kaminski, the airline’s executive director, has also stepped down from his position.
With the search for a new CEO may come other changes for the struggling budget airline. 1Time has revealed they are considering cutting services between Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town that are not profitable, but are also looking at new destinations.
Kulula, a South African budget airline, has announced that it will stop flying to Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, on January 17, 2012.
“The route from Lanseria (Johannesburg’s second airport) to Maputo, which became effective in May 2011, has proved to be commercially unviable for the airline,” spokeswoman Heidi Brauer said in a statement.
The airline said affected ticket-holders will either be refunded or booked on other airlines.
1Time, a low-cost carrier based in South Africa, will add Mombasa to its network by March 2012, following successful flights from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg to Zanzibar.
The twice-a-week service to Mombasa will open the South African market for holidays at the Kenyan coast, and hoteliers have overwhelmingly welcomed the new connection, which will finally offer nonstop flights between South Africa and Kenya’s Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa, eliminating the tiring and often hassle some transfer in Nairobi.
Initially a domestic airline operating within South Africa, 1Time has widened its reach with flights to Livingstone, Zambia, Zanzibar, and now Mombasa.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of European budget airline EasyJet, has announced plans to base his new low-cost carrier called FastJet in Africa.
“I am looking forward to being part of this new venture to bring low cost air travel to the people of Africa,” said Stelios. “Africa must now represent the final frontier of this aviation revolution which started in the US in the 70s and which I was proud to have led in Europe in the 90s.”
Stelios has signed a deal with investment company Rubicon to develop a budget airline in Africa. If the feasibility study proves successful, the airline will be launched under the Fastjet brand. Rubicon says that Stelios and his easyGroup management team will bring “significant airline experience” in the areas of operations, marketing, branding, IT, fleet selection and finance to the potential company.
A placeholder website has been set up at http://www.fastjet.com/ but no further details are currently available.
Waiting in long queues? So 2010. Thanks to kulula’s new online check-in service, the gateway to a hassle-free holiday is just a click of a mouse away. The low-fare airline’s convenient new offering allows travellers to print boarding passes in the comfort of their own home or office.
Self-printed boarding passes are accepted at most South African airports except Durbs, George and Nelspruit. kulula customers can select their preferred seat 24 hours prior to flight departure, with a cut-off time of two hours before departure. The online check-in service is only available for flight numbers with three digits (for example MN101).
Air Arabia ‘Egypt,’ an Alexandria-based Air Arabia Group company and Egypt’s new low cost carrier (LCC) held an official ceremony today in Cairo to mark the carrier’s launch. The event was attended by officials from Egypt and UAE along with members of public and trade sector.
