fastjet Secures International Route Approvals

These route approvals have been granted by the relevant Governments under the Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASAs) between Tanzania and the other countries.

Commenting on today's news, Ed Winter, CEO and Chairman of fastjet said: "This is a monumental day in fastjet's history and brings us closer to our goal of becoming Africa's first pan continental low-cost airline. To date our growth has been inhibited by lack of international routes in our network. We have expended huge effort over the past six months in obtaining these rights and we can only thank the government and population of Tanzania who have lobbied hard to allow us to gain access to the bilateral rights to operate to these countries. We will soon announce launch dates for flights to Johannesburg, Kigali and Lusaka from Dar es Salaam.

"We are especially pleased to be launching flights between Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg and we expect this to be a particularly popular route. South African Airways has had a monopoly on this route for far too long and we are very keen to offer substantially more affordable fares to customers and further stimulate the potential traffic between these key African cities. This can only have a very positive effect on the critical trade, commercial and tourism industries between South Africa and Tanzania."

fastjet Chief Commercial Officer Richard Bodin stated: "fastjet is currently planning a huge sales launch activity that will see it offering its customers never-seen-before fares. We hope to offer early booking passengers fares as low as $100 (one way excluding government taxes and charges) to and from Johannesburg. We have made a commitment to the people of Africa to democratize air travel on the continent and this is another very significant step on that journey."

Following today's international route announcement, along with fastjet signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria's Red 1 Airways Ltd to create a low-cost airline operating within Nigeria and to destinations across Africa, the fastjet Board has taken the decision to put the launch of fastjet-branded domestic routes in South Africa temporarily on hold so that it can direct all its efforts and resources to starting its international services as soon as possible.

Ed Winter added: "Bringing the fastjet brand to South Africa is a cornerstone in the creation of our pan-African network. We remain totally committed to launching the fastjet brand in South Africa as soon as possible, but given all the time and effort the team has invested over the past months to secure our international route designations, we have taken the sensible decision to prioritize setting up these lucrative and high profile routes first, before turning our attention to launch the fastjet brand on domestic routes in South Africa."