The SAAF Forum

Well i got a shocking surprise when i arrived at work today at 16:00pm, 1 Time airlines closed for business. CIAO shut down 1time airliner while they were boarding a flight and told passengers to disembark the aircraft. No news as of yet for the reason, but it doesnt seem 1Time will be in the skies again. Quite sad.

I found a couple of reports
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-sout ... iquidation
http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/transp ... iquidation

Yikes! Weren't these guys expanding like a month ago?

this is one airline that deserves to be bailed out by the gvt of SA.

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"My dream is that somehow South Africans and Zimbabweans create relationships of such a nature that the Limpopo river is no longer a border, but is a source of water and food.” -Bishop Paul Verryn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueEbv02k7Ag

It's not surprizing, the airline industry is a very expensive business and there are no short cuts to maintenance and operating costs. Also I feel there are too many airlines for the small market in SA, SAA could barely keep it's head above water then all these el cheapo airlines arrived and sliced the pie up even smaller. Still a tragedy for the staff though.

_________________
The first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is you stop digging!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 2681351417

The Book Worm: http://novelbooks.weebly.com/index.html

So there are just two airline group in SA:
- SAA/Mango
- Comair with BA/Kulula

Do not forget SA Express and Airlink.
They are smaller but fly the routes the others does not and carry a lot of pasengers.

Thanks Ben, how could I forget them.

(But I was thinking of the Golden Triangle routes)

The "Golden Triangle" is massively oversupplied but I'm sure there's room for quite a few more "thinner" routes.

Did you know that places like Bloemfontein, Upington, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley are connected to only ORT and CPT.

The SA domestic airline industry (except for SA Express and Airlink) seem to be incapable of even thinking of planes with less than 100 seats. I bet one could easily sell 10 to 20 seats at least 4 or 5 days a week between Upington, Kimberley and Bloemfontein. The "second level" cities are very poorly served or not at all - Polokwane, Vryburg, Grahamstown, Pietermaritzburg, Mafikeng, Springbok, Welkom, Odtshoorn, and so on...

How to make a small fortune in aviation:
1. Start with a large fortune
2. Buy an airline
3. Operate for a year
4. Small fortune left (if you're lucky)

Sale of 1Time fell through:

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?o ... Itemid=107

_________________
The first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is you stop digging!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 2681351417

The Book Worm: http://novelbooks.weebly.com/index.html

whats wrong with turbo prop aircraft like Dash 8 , ATR 72 ? i think MD 80 is only needed for the JHB-CPT route. Comair CEO Erik Venter said the low cost airline had closed because it operated a less efficient fleet.

_________________
"My dream is that somehow South Africans and Zimbabweans create relationships of such a nature that the Limpopo river is no longer a border, but is a source of water and food.” -Bishop Paul Verryn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueEbv02k7Ag

That is exactly my point - Why are SA airlines so "allergic" to smaller planes and why the "golden triangle" tunnel vision about destinations?

The MD80 is old and inefficient - it cannot compete with later model B737 and A320 series planes. The critical factor is litres of fuel per passenger per mile.

I feel sorry for FreshAir more than 1time because they had just entered into a technical partnership with 1time and they have no aircraft of their own .

_________________
"My dream is that somehow South Africans and Zimbabweans create relationships of such a nature that the Limpopo river is no longer a border, but is a source of water and food.” -Bishop Paul Verryn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueEbv02k7Ag

If I win the lotto, OK - has to be a really BIG one, or the PowerPlus or whatever it's called,
I want to start my own airline. My routes (with smaller planes of course, e.g. Cessna Caravan):
CPT -> Beau-West -> Bloem -> Lanseria.
CPT -> UPT -> Kimberley -> Lanseria
CPT -> George -> PE / East London -> Durban