Fastjet is happy with its first day of flying
Fastjet achieved an average booked load factor of 78% on its first day of operations yesterday.
The African first low-cost airline, backed by EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, flew its first aircraft from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza, and Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Eight sectors were flown, carrying more than 900 paying passengers.
The airline said three of the eight sectors flown exceeded a load factor of 90%, with many passengers paying just $20 each way.
It claims future demand for these two initial routes is currently far outstripping supply and it is already considering additional flights.
Fastjet also intends to expand its route network regionally over the coming weeks as the fleet grows to three Airbus A319s.
Chief executive Ed Winter said: "Yesterday’s passengers ranged from business people through to many first time flyers who were using fastjet as an economic alternative to conventional bus transport. Clearly, as predicted, our low cost model is stimulating a whole new market of people to fly.”
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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