“Do we have to bring our own seats and push the airplane for it to start?” – A friend, following the announcement of the entry of Africa’s latest budget airline, FastJet.
FastJet was born out of a buyout of Fly540 from Lonhro group’s aviation department by Sir Stelios, the founder of one of Europe’s most popular budget airlines, EasyJet.
FastJet claims ticket fares will be as low as $20. That is only if you book weeks in advance. Should you book the ticket close to the flying date the cost naturally becomes higher. They don’t tell you by how much though. Payments have to be made within the following time frames, for instance, 48 hours of booking if traveling within a month, 24 hours of booking if traveling within 4 days 6 hours of booking if traveling in less than 4 days and 1 hour of booking if traveling within 24 hours. I’m spoiled for choice, but it means if I had an emergency that saw me fly the same day, I’d pay nearly the standard fee that other airlines charge, but if I’m booking for my Easter holiday at the coast, I’ll pay quite little.
They didn’t mention the other costs of the ticket, starting with the most basic one, airport tax. Then we have baggage handling fees. There should be that fuel surcharge, and some sort administrative costs. They are a business, and therefore they must make a profit and still meet costs of overheads and salaries. This means that the actual ticket price could be closer to the $100 mark. I think it was wrong of them to advertise $20 air tickets, there is always a catch to that.
East Africans will have no problems with budget airlines. On the ground, we have matatus. We are accustomed to very little leg room, thinly padded seats, horrible customer service and ridiculous speeds. Some of them look like their body panels will fall off at any moment. Therefore, budget airlines will not be an issue for us. Like any other airline they have more strict and stringent safety regulations to meet.You will not see rocking chairs that move backwards when accelerating and moves forward whilst braking.
FastJet will be using Airbus A319 as their primary equipment. The propeller planes (The Bombardier Dash 8s and the ATR 42s) will be used for airports that can’t handle the airbus. Environmentalists are strangely quiet about carbon emissions though. I’m yet to hear of carbon emissions taxes in East Africa. Doesn’t the government like money?
The A319 is a good aircraft, and I thought it was quite wise of them to choose it. It’s proven to be an excellent regional aircraft in foreign markets and I’m sure it’ll fair well here. Besides, it won’t be as uncomfortable to fly as compared to those shaky, old French ATR-42s that fly540 used to have. They offer more leg room than rival planes do, which of course to the budget airline means cramming more seats inside. More seats equals more passengers, and as a result, more money.
Kenya Airways are also set to launch a budget airline subsidiary named JamboJet. It will be interesting to see the wars between these two airlines. Will we see television adverts of happy couples using a budget airline, or aggressive digital marketing where we have to like facebook pages to win a free ticket? Time will tell. It is nice that the monopoly of expensive flight might be coming to an end. I feel that with the upcoming tourist season, we’re literally going to have ticket offers smacked in our faces. Jambojet will either have to match their ticket offers or sell theirs at a slightly lower price to win passengers over. Of course, Fastjet won’t take such a move lightly. They may offer two packets of peanuts instead of Jambojets (probably) proposed one packet per passenger. Seriously though, Fastjet will most likely take their European cost strategies and localize it to suit East African conditions. Imagine a weekend package to zanzibar for less than Ksh11,000? I wouldn’t mind being stuffed into a plane with that on offer.
What I feel could make Fastjet (and possibly JamboJet now that one Mr Chris Diaz is marketing director for Kenya Airways) is an excellent customer experience. Just because they are budget airlines doesn’t mean the experience of flying with them need to be budget-minded. Time keeping, good customer service and prompt service can push these airlines forward.
That being said, all eyes are on Fastjet to see if their business model will work. Happy landings to them.