Those contemplating last-minute journeys to Cape Town over the December holidays could also be stunned that there are seats nonetheless accessible for flights on 15 and 23 December.
Some flights on these extremely standard days for journey are utterly bought out, however all 5 home carriers nonetheless have seats accessible. More astonishing than the truth that a good quantity of capability nonetheless exists, is the value of seats.
On South African Airways (SAA), the most cost effective flight to Cape Town from OR Tambo on both date is R4 448. That’s one way!
An evaluation by Moneyweb reveals that the ‘cheapest’ flights right down to the Cape are hovering across the R3 300 to R3 600 degree.
For low-cost carriers FlySafair and Lift, the ‘standard’ fare choice, which incorporates checked baggage, was chosen.
Far more difficult than getting to Cape Town is returning to Joburg on 2 or 3 January. Prices on these dates are even greater than the low-cost flights down in December, at R3 500 and above. Some of those choices require passengers to journey at much less handy occasions (departing at 05:55, for instance).
A return ticket on SAA – which operates among the many lowest variety of day by day flights between the 2 locations – will value an outrageous R9 723 (the return leg is Business Class). Return flights to many locations in Europe on these identical dates – very short-notice for worldwide journey – are ‘only’ double this value.
Even on the least costly native flights, a return ticket will value round R7 000.
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The solely actual various for many who need to be in Cape Town over the Christmas/New Year interval is to fly on much less standard days, like 21 December or Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Flights on these dates are on the extra palatable R2 500 mark.
Getting again stays the problem …
Return costs from Cape Town start normalising by 9 January (colleges in inland provinces reopen on 11 January).
| Number of day by day return flights | OR Tambo to CT
15 Dec |
OR Tambo to CT 23 Dec |
CT to OR Tambo 02 Jan |
|
| FlySafair | 17 | R3 481 | R3 141 | R3 481 |
| Lift | 7 | R3 600 | R3 600 | R3 600 |
| SAA | 7 | R4 448 | R4 448 | R5 275 |
| CemAir | 7 | R3 314 | R3 314 | R3 544 |
| Airlink | 6 | R3 645 | R3 645 | R4 013 |
* Prices as at 12:00 on 6 December. Lowest value per provider chosen, even when that seat was Business Class. For FlySafair and Lift, the usual fare choice was chosen, i.e. with checked in baggage.
For a leisure vacation spot with far much less capability, like George, there are merely no flights accessible over the festive season.
FlySafair, with 4 to 5 flights a day between OR Tambo and the Garden Route, has no accessible flights in any respect from Sunday till Christmas Day.
The identical is true for Airlink and CemAir, which function two or three direct flights a day. Airlink has one or two seats accessible on fewer than a handful of connecting flights through Cape Town between now and the twenty fourth.
And going ahead?
December peak costs apart, all airline bosses within the native market are on report saying that the market is now quite a bit nearer to equilibrium than it was.
Following the collapse of Comair and Mango into liquidation and enterprise rescue respectively, costs are actually nearer to actuality.
The days of Kulula and Mango flooding routes with capability at costs that have been under value are over.
A extra real looking return fare to Cape Town is quite a bit nearer R2 500 than days passed by when tickets might’ve been purchased for R1 500.
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Even as costs average in January, provide on the Cape Town route will proceed to be constrained.
FlySafair, which has round two-thirds market share domestically, operates 17 return flights to Cape Town from OR Tambo, with an additional 4 from Lanseria, north-west of Johannesburg.
This is a unprecedented quantity of seats on this route, with plane taking off in each instructions no less than as soon as an hour. Still, this hasn’t changed the misplaced capability from Kulula, British Airways and Mango (which was compelled to take over the majority of SAA’s home routes in 2018).