FlyAfrica dishes out $1 flights

IF flying is your dream but you have been failing to fulfil it because of financial problems, then maybe you have just missed a lifetime opportunity to be in the skies. Budget airline Fly Africa yesterday availed 50 000 tickets for a $1 for all its routes just for an hour as part of its first year anniversary celebrations. Fly Africa Zimbabwe country manager Mr Matipedza Karase said the tickets were available for an hour yesterday between 11am and 12pm, although the promotion only covered airfare and was not inclusive of taxes and luggage expenses.

"Most airlines will tell you a sale has limited seats, limited travel dates and limited destinations. Not us. We are selling over 50 000 seats - with at least 30 seats on every flight. You can book for Christmas, New Year, Easter or school holidays. There are no blocked travel dates. But you only have 1 hour! You can book to all the countries we fly to: DRC, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe," read part of the Fly Africa promotion sent to some of its clients.

Mr Karase, however, said the $1 flight for an international traveller for example Bulawayo to Johannesburg would mean that the person only pays a dollar for the air ticket but would still pay an additional $50 airport tax and luggage expenses while for domestic flights like Bulawayo-Harare there would be an additional airport tax of $15. Subsequently this means travelling outside the country would be $51 while locally would be $16 for a passenger who would have purchased the ticket during the promotion period.

"In the one year that we have been in operation, business has been ok in terms of expansion and penetrating the market but as a new bird in the sky we still have a lot of work to do," said Mr Karase.

He said the airline, which started operating last year with a maiden flight between Victoria Falls and Johannesburg, would still work on adding to its fleet of aircrafts, improving customer service and employing more locals as part of the cabin crew.

"There is still a lot of work that needs to be done and even though we have made progress. There are still issues that need clarifying," Mr Karase said.

Responding to allegations that the airline was misrepresenting itself to the public and leading people to believe that its charges were the lowest in the industry yet not being specific on their luggage policy which entails customers paying an additional amount for luggage above seven kilogrammes, Mr Karase said people were justified to complain.

There was a public outrage over some of the airline's services which include the fact that after a schedule change the airline "adamantly refused a refund for already booked flights".

He said the airline's marketing team was in the process of educating the public about the luggage policy and it was part of their strategy for the next year of operations.

"This is a new business model and it is the low cost business model. We might have been vague in our marketing and misled people into believing that they can travel at a certain price, they are actually justified to be complaining.

The low cost business model entails a number of things and resolving this misunderstanding is part of our marketing strategy for next year and how we sell our services to the public," said Mr Karase.

Fly Africa introduced its first aircraft - Z-FAA in August 2014 at 11am to service the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route, flying three times a week on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays and due to demand at that time, frequency was increased to four times a week to include Mondays and at the time attributed their breaking the 40 percent load factor average in just six weeks of flying to pricing.

The airline charges between $50 and $70 for a one way ticket between Victoria Falls and Johannesburg, excluding taxes and baggage, which are charged separately.