Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu has warned that the grounding of Comair flights will have a direct impact on travel and tourism in the country.<\/p>\n
Comair, which operates Kulula and domestic British Airways flights in South Africa, has suspended all of its flights in South Africa as it looks for additional funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cComair regrets to advise its flights have been voluntarily suspended from 1 June pending securing funding to resume operations. If your flight has been cancelled, please don\u2019t travel to the airport unless you have alternative arrangements. Our heartfelt apologies for the inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Once (funding is) received the airline will be able to recommence operations, but regrettably under these circumstances, the practitioners (administrators) have no choice but to voluntarily suspend all scheduled flights until the funding is confirmed,” it said.<\/p>\n
Sisulu said the loss of Comair was concerning as the group is responsible for about 40% of the country’s local aviation capacity.<\/p>\n
“This comes at a bad time as families are preparing for school holidays and some international holidaymakers are preparing to spend their summer holidays in SA. However, our main concern is the effect this will have on tourism,”\u00a0 Sisulu said.<\/p>\n
“Domestic travel contributed positively to demand in the Covid-19 period, driven by campaigns and pricing targeted for our domestic market. This was positive and helped create better understanding within the market and through this exposure propelled the market to diversify its offerings.”<\/p>\n
Sisulu added that global tourism is rebounding despite lingering Covid-19 restrictions and the effects of the conflict in Ukraine, but tourist arrival numbers are not back to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
“The pace of recovery is slow and uneven across world regions, and this is due to varying degrees of mobility restrictions, vaccination rates, and traveller confidence,” she said.<\/p>\n
Competitor airline CemAir said that the grounding of Comair is likely due to a number of factors, but can partly be attributed to adding too much capacity and selling tickets too cheaply in pursuit of market share.<\/p>\n
“Comair, in my view, was unrealistic,” CemAir chief executive Miles van der Molen told News24<\/a><\/strong>. “They added massive capacity at below cost to try get market share. Either the market needed to grow unrealistically to fill the capacity or someone needed to exit. At record fuel prices it was always going to be an expensive strategy.”<\/p>\n He added that domestic ticket prices have to increase to reflect new cost pressures, which will help to create a more stable, investable and reliable aviation sector.<\/p>\n
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