Comair profit recovers on the back of reduced competition and successful transformation programme

South Africa's Comair has bounced back to report a ZAR227.5 million (USD22.8 million) net profit for the financial year to 30-Jun-2013 as the benefits begin to flow from reduced domestic competition and an 18 month transformation strategy, including the implementation of the Sabre IT platform, a freeze on all non-critical costs and the arrival of next generation 737-800 aircraft.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed carrier has benefited from the demise of domestic LCC competitor 1time in Nov-2012 which significantly reduced capacity and has allowed fares to increase substantially as the market returned to a two-group duopoly with South African Airways (SAA). The competitive reprieve looks to be short lived, however, with SkyWise and FlySafair both poised to launch services on the golden Johannesburg-Cape Town route.