South Africans paying up to 54% more for domestic air travel

Posted by Tsoku Maela on 13 March 2023

According to BusinessTech, domestic air travel ticket prices in South Africa have increased by up to 54% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

South Africans paying up to 54% more for domestic air travel

Picture: Getaway gallery

This price increase can be attributed to high fuel prices, increased demand, and a rapid decline in airline capacity due to airline liquidations caused by the pandemic. In 2022, liquidations removed 40% of domestic airline capacity virtually overnight, including Comair, the company behind Kulula, and British Airways’ local partnership with Comair.

The rise in ticket prices was also compounded by the cost of aviation fuel increasing by more than 80% in 2022 compared to 2021.

As a result, South Africans are paying 30% to 55% more for local flights than they did in 2019. The average South African now spends 12% more on domestic and 2% more on international travel. However, the prices for some of South Africa’s most popular routes increased dramatically.

Flights between Cape Town and Durban increased by 54%, followed by flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town, which increased by 41%, and flights between Durban and Johannesburg, which increased by 35%.

The Department of Transport has also gazetted changes to airport tariffs for 2023, which will see price hikes for airlines using airport facilities in the country. The managing director of Plane Talking, Linden Birns, stated that airlines in South Africa are highly conscious of customers’ sensitivity to any increases in the cost of air travel and try to mitigate the impact of increases and absorb them. However, they will inevitably have to recover some of these customer costs.

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