Finance

South Africans are ditching business class for economy – here is the price difference

Staff Writer

 ·22 Sep 2019

Travellers on South African Airways are opting for cheaper seats as financial pressures weigh.

This is according to the airline’s interim chief financial officer Deon Fredricks who presented to parliament on Wednesday (18 September).

“We have seen that customer requirements have changed, where previously people internationally would fly first or business class,” he said.

“The first-class passengers (are now) moving to business class, business class passengers are moving to premium-economy, and as such it is becoming a very price-sensitive environment.”

He added that the airline will adapt to this new environment by having fewer business class seats and increasing its premium-economy offerings.

“The market has adapted to such an extent that customers want to select which class they fly, whether they want priority excess, do they want food etc.”

Citing data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Fredricks said that globally the average price from January – May 2018 reduced by 12% in dollar terms.  In comparison passengers increased by just 2%.

“If you just use simple maths you can see we are 10% behind. As a result, we have seen significant pressure on our revenues which is why we are starting on specific initiatives to address them.”

Fredricks said that these new initiatives will include:

• Additional flights in the domestic and regional markets;
• Optimising and reducing certain flights which are not profitable;
• Using new aircraft – such as the Airbus A350 – for certain international routes.

Price differences 

While airline pricing can differ widely based on the time of year, carrier and destination – it is still possible to get an idea of the price differences between business class and economy seats.

The below table shows the price difference for both regional and international flights based on SAA’s website. All flight costs were taken from the week of 21 – 28 September.

Read: Government looks at merging SAA, Mango and SA Express