Comair's low-cost arm Kulula.com is considering a move to secondary airports as new carriers enter the budget sector in South Africa.
Comair, which also holds the British Airways franchise in the country, has held discussions with Johannesburg's business aviation airport Lanseria, which has landing fees around a tenth those of Johannesburg International. "There are certainly merits of looking at secondary airports from a cost and congestion point of view, but we have to conduct customer research before making any change," says Gidon Novick, Kulula.com's commercial director.
Lanseria airport manager Gavin Sayce says the strategy of the airport, which completed a R100 million ($15 million) terminal late last year and is upgrading its runway, is to attract two scheduled carriers next year. It is located 30km (19 miles) north-west of Johannesburg's central business district.
Only SunAir, a business class-only shuttle to Cape Town, operates scheduled services from the airport. An open skies agreement with Mozambique signed under the Pan-African Yamoussoukro accord has granted any Lanseria-based carrier rights to fly to three destinations in Mozambique, and Embraer Brasilia operator Charlans Air is to start operations on the routes from January.
"According to our market studies, 70% of the population of the Johannesburg/Pretoria region live within our 40min-drive footprint," says Sayce. Lanseria was the only airport apart from the main provincial capital cities to retain its international status under strict laws introduced in 1999.
Kulula is also preparing for the arrival of a second low fares operation, OneTime, scheduled to start operations in January. "The market is too small to support more than one operator," says Novick.
Source: Flight International