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- The suspension of Comair's kulula.com and domestic British Airways flights have resulted in increased loads for other airlines.
- Flights to the Eastern Cape and to Durban have especially seen a higher load factor since Comair's suspension of its flights.
- Comair says it has about 40% of the market in SA.
The suspension of Comair's flights - which according to the company account for 40% of the local market - has put a squeeze on flights between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and into the Eastern Cape, according to other airlines.
Comair operates its own low-cost airline kulula.com as well as British Airways domestically and regionally in terms of a franchise agreement. Comair suspended its kulula.com and British Airways flights on Tuesday last week due to not having enough money to continue flying.
"Loads are definitely up and better than we would have budgeted. There are not a lot of fully sold-out flights on Monday, but there is a bit of a squeeze on flights into the Eastern Cape. Cape Town to Durban is also looking very full for a few days out," Flysafair spokesperson Kirby Gordon said on Monday morning.
According to South African Airways (SAA), the state-owned airline has seen an increase in demand and it is adding more frequencies to meet that demand. It is adding more seats between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in the wake of the gap left by the suspended Comair flights.
READ | Stakes on a plane: What happens to SA aviation if Comair goes down?
"We are also looking at options to help customers on other routes serviced by SAA. Having emerged from business rescue ourselves, we empathise with Comair and understand the difficulties caused by Covid-19 and high fuel prices," says SAA's interim chair and interim CEO John Lamola.
CemAir CEO Miles van der Molen told Fin24 on Monday that it had also seen an uptick and load factors are better. At the same time, they have not seen an over-subscription on most routes.
"The first weeks of the month are normally quieter, so we expect to see volumes increase in coming weeks, but more capacity is being added," said Van der Molen.
Airlink saw an uptick in sales on 1 June, and has seen take-up of some unsold capacity on certain of the flights over the past few days, especially on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. According to CEO Rodger Foster, this was, however, not enough "to move the needle". To him this is a clear indication of market oversupply.
READ | EXPLAINER | How Comair ended up in a battle for survival
Comair has been in business rescue for the past two years. It says it has been impacted by rising debt due to pre-pandemic fleet renewal plans, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation industry, and recently the rising fuel cost.
Internal communications between employees towards the end of last week, seen by Fin24, has alleged that Comair had about a week in which to secure funding or face liquidation. One employee claimed that they had been told by the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) that failing meeting this deadline, they would be legally bound to apply for liquidation.
The BRPs did not confirm this when approached by Fin24.
"Negotiations are in progress and we are not able to confirm when these will be concluded, successfully or otherwise," they said.
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