South Africa Car Hire

Fri, 20 Apr 2007

South Africa's state-owned airline, South African Airways, sub-leases four B737-800 aircraft to its low-cost Mango airline on commercial terms, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in a reply to a parliamentary question on Friday.

He replied to the Democratic Alliance's Manie van Dyk who asked what was the agreement between SAA and Mango in respect of renting aircraft to the latter and to whom did the rented aircraft belong.

‘Commercially sensitive’ information

The minister said the aircraft belonged to a leasing company, Gecas. Asked if Mango did not meet its rental commitments, the minister replied that SAA would have to meet its commitments to the "head lessor, Gecas" and then would have recourse to Mango to recover such costs.

Asked about a R100-million loan by SAA to Mango, Erwin said: "This information is commercially sensitive and accordingly the information can only be provided in the context of the SAA financial statement and with regard to Mango's financial statements at the end of the financial year."

The minister said the loan was made available to fund Mango's start-up costs and for working capital.

Reasons for delays?

In a separate reply to another question from Van Dyk, Erwin said in the period 1 January 2005, to 31 January 2007, 23.2 percent of SAA's domestic flights were delayed and 23.6 percent of the international flights.

"There are various reasons... ranging from aircraft damage, industrial action and weather," said Erwin.

Among the steps taken to resolve these matters was to hold daily meetings with internal departments and external companies — with which there were service agreements — to discuss delays.

Since early 2006 a global operations daily reflections newsletter had been sent to 179 management and staff members in SAA to create awareness about the reasons for the delays.

SAA intranet website had been enhanced in the last year to indicate to all staff their "on-time" performance. Display boards throughout the company showed the monthly delay statistics.

From time to time SAA had asked for assistance from Star Alliance partners and other airlines to carry some of their passengers. There had been a recent case in Washington DC during a snow storm when SAA could not land because of airport closure. Passengers were re-accommodated on United States internal flights from New York.
Article from http://business.iafrica.com/
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Labels: South Africa - Airlines

Johannesburg - Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall's boast nearly 20 years ago - that he saved the airline US$40 000/year by removing a single olive from passengers' dinner salads - is legendary in the sector and set the tone for struggling airlines worldwide.

Ever since then, airlines have been looking for innovative ways to cut costs in one of the world's toughest industries.

Joint Comair CEO Gidon Novick says news that consultants to SA Airways were advising it to radically cut back on its meals service to all passengers came like "manna from heaven". Details of the report came as Comair announced it was ramping up its business class meals offering on its domestic British Airways franchise.

Cost-cutting is part of a global airline trend. Those at the back of the aircraft are already used to limited legroom and queuing for the toilet considerably longer than the well heeled up front. Increasingly, they also have to pay for what they consume at the rear. Those at the sharp end pay the big bucks and as a result get better service.

Northwest Airlines in the US recently eliminated a free half-ounce bag of braided pretzel sticks from its offering. They only cost a few cents each - but the airline, which carries 40m passengers/year, is saving $2m as a result.

SAA, which made an attributable loss of R652m in the six months to end-September 2006, will have to do considerably more than remove an olive from passengers' dinner plates to turn a profit.

US consultants Seabury Airline Planning Group have handed management a proposal they say will save the airline R2.7bn.

Among the proposals is a planned saving of R171m by cutting out food in economy class and limiting the options for higher paying business class passengers. The proposals are scheduled to go to SAA's board in May.

Novick doesn't expect SAA to implement the proposals fully, as it would cost the national carrier passengers. But the timing couldn't have been better for the domestic BA franchise, which coincidentally (it insists) has been planning an upgrade of its meals service for months.

About 12% of Comair's passengers travel business class. The newly launched menu will see the cost per passenger rise from about R60 to R90/head, adding about R4m/year in additional costs. "We only need to add three new business class passengers a day across our network to cover the cost," says Novick, who is confident the new strategy will pay off handsomely.

Part of that strategy is to strike up alliances to get better pricing. For example, Brandhouse supplies top end whisky Johnnie Walker Black at a preferential rate, as does the US ice-cream brand Häagen-Dazs, which has been recently introduced to the South African market.

Low-profile carrier Nationwide revealed in January that it would be scrapping the concept of complimentary meals in economy on its domestic routes and replacing them with a new "Buy-Onboard" product.

It strenuously denies it's following the budget airline model. About 7% of Nationwide's passengers fly business class - and the airline is planning to upgrade its menus at the front end of its aircraft.

Nationwide financial director Peter Griffiths says catering in economy class was costing the airline around R30m/year and it estimated about a third of the food served was wasted.

However, the cost cuts don't mean price reductions on tickets. Says Griffiths: "This saving has in effect been passed on to customers, as our fares are comparable with the other carriers, including the so-called low-cost carriers."

Budget carriers kulula.com (owned by Comair), 1Time and SAA-owned Mango offer limited in-flight catering at an additional cost to their customers.
Article from http://www.fin24.co.za
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Labels: South Africa - Airlines

South Africa's national parks are poised for a surge in gay tourism now that a tourist operator has launched a series of tours designed to initiate gay visitors to the delights of the savannah.

While Cape Town is consistently voted one of the top five gay holiday destinations worldwide, Strider Expeditions says it aims to lure gay tourists out of the Mother City for a fuller African experience.

Although the international gay travel market accounts for more than 70-million arrivals worldwide, South Africa receives only 1% of international gay travellers, according to the South African Gay and Lesbian Travel Alliance.

"In South Africa, the gay community is not very well served," says Ian Pollard, a former guide in the Kruger National Park and co-founder of Strider along with Briton Charlotte Currie. Gay people "feel more accepted in some places than others", he says.

Identifying accommodation in the countryside that welcomes gay clients was a first step to launching the service. Strider says he knows of lodges in the conservative rural heartland of the Free State that specifically cater for gay tourists, while others declare themselves "gay friendly".

The company also employs gay and lesbian tour guides who can help tailor packages to the specific needs of gay tourists, such as organising trips to see performances by Peter Dirk-Uys, a well-known gay satirist and former anti-apartheid activist.

The tours offered by the company take in Kruger National Park, parts of Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa's Wild Coast, as well as the mandatory Cape Town/southern Garden Route coastal stretch.

Without being able to quantify it, Pollard is convinced the market for gay tourism is "a huge, huge market" in South Africa, which last year became the first African country to legalise same-sex marriage.

In December, the Mail & Guardian Online reported that Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which manages 68 lodges catering for eco-tourists heading to KwaZulu-Natal, had hired Vivienne Quann of Hot Salsa Media, a marketing company that specialises in the gay market, to transform its hotels internally and teach staff how to deal with gay customers.
Article from http://www.mg.co.za/
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Labels: South Africa - Tourism

MONEYWEB: Carl Scholtz is the executive manager for IT at kulula.com, and we've asked him to join us tonight for an interesting story. It's a real online success story in South Africa, and today an announcement came from Kulula that in the past year they have sold more than a billion rand's worth of airline tickets over the Internet. Carl, how many tickets exactly is that?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Alec, we carry around about a million passengers a year, and that's probably the number that you could work on.

MONEYWEB: But a billion rand in turnover on the Internet seems to suggest that you've got to be well, by some distance, the most active online trader in the country?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Alec, in this country we are. The sum total of online retailing, as defined by Statistics SA - and that would be retailing of flowers, books, those kind of things - is probably around about half of what we retail. And then there are obviously other airlines as well that also retail online. But as far as the total goes, what we turn over is obviously a significant portion of the total online retail in South Africa.

MONEYWEB: Now what is, from your perspective, the cost advantage of selling tickets on the Internet where people do their own booking, compared with having travel agents doing it for you?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Right. There are a number of cost elements that come into play when you do not sell directly, and through the online channel. The first one of these is obviously the cost of third-party systems and third-party technology that you need to distribute your product through. In this case, in the case of the airline and the travel industry, those would be the global distribution systems which are third-party systems that we need to subscribe to.

MONEYWEB: But try and be specific, Carl, if you can, for us. Say, on an average ticket, by selling it through the Internet rather than selling it through someone who is sitting on a telephone for you - what would your saving be?

CARL SCHOLTZ: It's probably about R50 per ticket. Just the distribution saving.

MONEYWEB: So how come, then, Kulula can come in so much more cheaply than other airlines?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Alec, there are other factors that come into play as well. The distribution cost is only one element of the airline model. There is also the catering on board, the lounges - there are a number of other cost factors that come into play when you are selling airline seats and operations. It's not only the distribution cost. The distribution cost is one element of a number of others in terms of the total cost saving.

MONEYWEB: Clearly it's very important that your whole processing engine is efficient. Did you go overseas and have a look at BMI, or perhaps even some of the American airlines before putting your kulula.com function together?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Ja, Alec, we are in the third iteration now. We've been through two other systems previously, and what we've settled on now appears to be working really well for us - and the answer is yes. We've had a look at a number of overseas systems, and what we've ended up with is something that was developed locally by South African airline people for this particular market and for our requirements.

MONEYWEB: Can you sell that possibly to competitors, or to other airlines around the world?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Yes, we can.

MONEYWEB: Have you done so?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Yes, we have.

MONEYWEB: Oh, to whom?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Unfortunately I can't disclose that at this point in time.

MONEYWEB: But are they serious players within the international environment?

CARL SCHOLTZ: I would say, yes. It is not necessarily the big low-cost players or the big airline players overseas, but certainly not some of the smaller players.

MONEYWEB: Well, that is relevant because, if it's a South African design and it has been able to be used internationally, it must have a kind of a double kicker for you, I guess?

CARL SCHOLTZ: It is. Of course, it's a challenge for us, because we've got the core business and our own requirements that we need to keep an eye on and keep focused on. But it does present additional opportunities, definitely.

MONEYWEB: Carl, we've seen here at Moneyweb, as the broadband wheel has started rolling in South Africa, the amount of people who are visiting our website have been rising significantly, almost exponentially. Have you had a similar experience at kulula.com?

CARL SCHOLTZ: Yes, Alec, we attract around about half a million visitors to the website every month. We have a pretty good look-to-book ratio. It's in the order of about 7:1. So for every seven visitors who get to the website, we get one booking. And part of the reason for that is because we are a pretty focused website. We take airline bookings and we try and optimise that process; we try and keep it easy and simple. But yes, we have seen a rise. In terms of the percentage of our bookings that are made online, over the past three years that's risen from probably 65% to almost about 80% at the moment.

MONEYWEB: And the number of people visiting? You said half a million people a month now visit kulula.com. What was that like two, three years ago?

CARL SCHOLTZ: You're testing my memory here, but I would suggest it was probably about half. In fact, it would be less than half because at that stage the passengers we flew were a lot fewer as well. So it would probably be a lot less than half.

MONEYWEB: Massive success story, and the Internet has made it all possible, David Shapiro. Interesting, isn't it?

DAVID SHAPIRO: Yes. I use the Internet. I book all my flights through the Internet. I know you've got Barbara, but some of us have to do it ourselves.
Interview from http://www.moneyweb.co.za/
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Labels: South Africa - Airlines

I don’t know whether or not you have considered not only a vacation in South Africa, or even got as far as the planning stage. For most people a visit to South Africa tends to be in the middle of the European Winter, because of the attractions of blue sky and a much better temperature.

Naturally enough this is high season time in South Africa, and we should all know exactly what that means.
It of course means high prices, and crowds, two things that would put me right off.

Going to South Africa has to include at least a few days spent on Safari, so what does that mean in high season?The first thing it means is a 40% hike in hotel room rates, and in the same vein, a substantial rise in air fares especially around the Christmas to New Year period.

In addition why don’t you consider the following thoughts:

If you want to fly from Europe to Cape Town, then fares drop sharply in mid August, and hotel rates stay low until September. It is true that the temperature in Cape Town over Christmas are around 25 degrees centigrade, and in August only 18 degrees. There is far more rain in August, but what are the advantages of a low season visit apart from the obvious financial one?

The first thing is, that you don’t hopefully go to South Africa to sit and vegetate on a beach, after all you can go to many other less interesting places and do that.

There is more rain so in the Western Cape, The Namaqualand is in full bloom, just for a very short period of time.
It is a great time to go whale watching in Hermanus, and a wonderful time to visit Kruger Park, because this is when the animals congregate around water holes.

So in conclusion the best time to visit South Africa is not December/January, but August

By: Grant Robertson -

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com/

Grant Robertson contributes to http://www.worldwidevacationspots.com/ and recommends you check it out before booking a vacation as it is full of relevant facts
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Labels: South Africa - articledashboard.com