Following a meeting with the Air Service Licensing Council of South Africa, FlySafair has received approval to operate flights to 11 new destinations within southern Africa.
The ASLC has approved FlySafair’s application to operate flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls. In addition, the airline has been approved for frequencies from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi, and Seychelles, as well as between Cape Town and Windhoek. Its application for routes between Johannesburg and Harare, Windhoek and Zanzibar plus an additional frequency to Mauritius is still pending.
Various bilateral agreements exist between South Africa and neighbouring countries which govern the number of weekly flights to be operated by different airlines in these markets. In South Africa, these frequencies are awarded to airlines by ASLC which is part of the Department of Transport.
Earlier this year, the low-cost carrier applied for rights to operate connections to a number of new destinations throughout the Southern African region, as well as additional frequencies to the Island of Mauritius which already operates twice weekly.
With the ASLC approvals in hand, FlySafair can now engage the relevant airport and civil aviation authorities in each market and begin planning the flight schedules.
The addition of these new routes to FlySafair’s network will offer welcome connectivity and increased capacity to regional destinations within Southern Africa, many of which have been constrained by the departures of previous route holders.
FlySafair has added four new aircraft to its current schedule with one more expected in January.
Picture: Supplied
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