FASTJET ANNOUNCES APRIL RESULTS
(Posted 17th May 2014)
Fastjet has just released their April results for the operation in Tanzania and recorded an 11 percent rise in passenger numbers on a year by year comparison, with an added 1 percent increase in loadfactor to 66 percent for the month.
Passenger numbers on an annual basis however increased by a significant 170 percent, largely as a result of the introduction of new domestic and international destinations over the past 12 months.
A recently concluded special sales activity generated a reported 23.000 advance bookings with travelers taking advantage of special terms and conditions at the time.
Said Richard Bodin, the airline’s COO, when commenting on the results: ‘From a sales and distribution perspective, our [recent] sale saw the most successful day in fastjet’s history, with record-breaking ticket sales, conversion rates and mobile payment transactions. The success of the sale has put us in a strong position as we head into the high season’.
During the sale, traffic to Fastjet’s website increased very significantly, with web hits up by nearly 1.000 percent compared to the same day in March 2014. Unique users, i.e. visitors to the site using a guest ID, increased by 163% in Tanzania and 210% in South Africa as new customers took advantage of Fastjet’s low fares. The company also set up ‘pop-up shops’ in several locations in Tanzania, providing temporary distribution facilities to purchase tickets. These shops were going by feedback received well accepted giving some indication that a repeat may be on the cards as and when circumstances require.
Meanwhile is the restructuring of the former Fly540 operations in Angola and Ghana ongoing with the latest news being that two of the aircraft previously used, until some of the flight operations were suspended, now up for sale.
Fastjet has in recent weeks repeatedly stressed that their present focus will be to establish their new bases in Zambia, South Africa and Kenya while preparing for a relaunch as a LCC airline in the former Fly540 markets in Angola and Ghana.
