{"id":867944,"date":"2026-07-29T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867944"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:12:56","slug":"new-international-flights-from-south-africa-are-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/867944\/new-international-flights-from-south-africa-are-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"New international flights from South Africa are coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FlySafair is looking to massively expand its operations with a series of new flights across international and local routes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a media roundtable, FlySafair Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Gordon said the company is considering a host of new international flights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon said that the airline is looking to add new flights to its Harare, Zimbabwe route, given its success thus far, with around 8,000 seats per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also looking to establish a Joburg-Windhoek link, given that it already operates in Windhoek via its Cape Town route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other African capitals are also attractive for the low-cost airline. This includes Lusaka, Zambia, and Nairobi, Kenya, even though Gordon admitted the latter is incredibly competitive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, he added that the Cape Winelands Airport, which is currently under construction, is incredibly attractive for the airline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the R8 billion airport is making significant progress on environmental matters, but is still a few years from launch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the airport will bring significant change to the local aviation landscape, especially regarding flight diversions and their costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flights must carry fuel for a diversion from the route. Cape Winelands will thus be an alternative route for long-haul flights arriving in Cape Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While planes have to carry additional fuel to reach the diversion, this means more fuel is actually burnt to carry the additional weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

International flights will no longer have to fly to Johannesburg or Durban if they can’t land in Cape Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airport will also receive a retainer from airlines in the event of a diversion, meaning it will still earn revenue even if the plane doesn’t land on its runway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airport will also serve a growing part of South Africa, with Gordon noting that Belville’s GDP is larger than Namibia’s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon admitted that there are limits to how much FlySafair can expand its operations, as the airline cannot offer routes that do not include South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airline thus cannot operate flights between international destinations, such as the Harare-Windhoek route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, while Harith Aviation is set to acquire FlySafair, pending approval from the Competition Tribunal and the Reserve Bank, Gordon said the airline will not benefit from a massive influx of cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that Harith is a value investor and will look to benefit from FlySafair’s continued operations in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the airline is set to receive a shipment of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in 2028, these aircraft were ordered before the Harith deal was announced. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
FlySafair\u2019s Chief Marketing Officer, Kirby Gordon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FlySafair is set to expand its flight network, with eyes on a host of international capitals and South Africa’s new airport. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":816799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2082466430465843345","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10020],"class_list":["post-867944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-flysafair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867944"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868004,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867944\/revisions\/868004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}