Fastjet's tickets for South Africa route to go on sale at end of month

The route is Fastjet's first international one and marks the airline's initial step on the way to becoming a pan-African carrier.

Fastjet said tickets will be on sale from July 31 and basic fares, excluding government taxes and charges, for flights between Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg will cost as little as US$100.

Richard Bodin, chief commercial officer of Fastjet, said: "For some time the Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg route has only been operated by one airline and the lack of competition has created inflated fares. Fastjet will substantially reduce the average fare and in doing so will encourage more leisure and business traffic between Tanzania and South Africa."

Initially, flights on the route will operate three times a week, with the first flight scheduled for 27 September. The airline is expecting strong demand on this route and will increase the frequency of flights in line with market demand. The airline expects to add further international destinations including Lusaka, Zambia, to its flying programme in the near future.

Ed Winter, chief executive officer of Fastjet, said the availability of tickets for flights between Tanzania and South Africa marked a milestone in the company's history.

"Despite a number of challenges, Fastjet is now able to respond to huge consumer demand and provide an alternative and affordable link between Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg, having secured all required permissions to do so. For far too long it has been difficult and prohibitively expensive to fly between these two extraordinary cities. We expect our lower fares to stimulate a huge increase in the numbers of passengers travelling on this route, as has been the case on our domestic routes in Tanzania," Winter said.

"Overwhelming public support for Fastjet's low cost model has been a contributing factor to us launching this route. We hope that the obvious desire for a change in the competitive landscape will result in Fastjet soon being awarded licences in more African countries, bringing consumers the benefits of choice and lower prices on many more international routes."