Published by Halaal Travels. Last Updated: 28 October 2022
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The South African aviation sector is still struggling with the limited supply and the rising demand after Comair’s collapse. Pre-covid South Africa had other local major reliable airline carriers that were operational with local flights; South African Airways, British Airways, Kulula and Mango airlines. These aircrafts serviced and connected South African local travel. However, now within the local travel landscape South Africa is left with only South African Airways, FlySafair, Lift, Cemair and Airlink.
This has resulted in flight prices being at all time highs. It has also resulted with South Africans not being able to book any last minute flight specials with the current airline carriers. This is because the demand for local flights massively outstrips supply. This coupled with the oil volatility and the high jet fuel prices has been the reason for these increased flight costs.
What is the way forward to meet the high demand and low supply of local flights?
FlySafair will be adding an additional six Boeing 737-800 aircrafts by the end of April 2023. The addition of these aircraft will add 35 000 more seats per month. Will this help curb and lower the demand vs supply and significantly reduce the cost of local flight prices? Let’s wait and see. Here is a screenshot of current prices that you will pay if you would like to travel locally this upcoming holiday season.
These are screenshots of the prices you would have paid if you travelled during the June/July school holidays.
How can I now get bargain local flights?
Book a long time in advance. This will help you save on local airfares as closer to the times the flights become full and supply decreases, hence as supply decreases and demand increases, the flight prices will go up. Now is a good time to start preparing and planing to book your local flights for next year. The Easter weekend will be a great time to travel locally. However, booking in advance has never been more essential as it is now in order for you to get better flight prices.
However, if you are still looking to go away this summer then the next best option will be to postpone your travels to the last two weeks of January. By this time most people are back at work and the supply vs demand would have decreased.
Another option would be to go on a road trip. Road trips are a great way to bond as a family and can make for some great adventures. Here is a blog post of a road trip from Cape Town to Durban and includes what it would cost you, potential routes to take and halaal food options. Road Trip Guide Blog Post.
Speaking of road trips. The most important part of a road trip is the car you have. Here is a link to a YouTube playlist containing possible options for your next road trip car.
The playlist includes cars from various manufacturers such as Kia, Mazda, Opel, Land Rover, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Renault, Mahindra, Mitsubishi and Suzuki.