fastjet reveals strong passenger numbers during run up to Christmas

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fastjet Plc has announced its passenger statistics for the month of November 2013 which revealed its operations in Tanzania carried a total of 33,301 passengers achieving an average load factor of 72 per cent.

Capacity decreased slightly from October 2013 due to temporary night-landing restrictions at Mwanza airport.Punctuality remained excellent with 98 per cent of flights operating on time Note 5.

Ed Winter, interim Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of fastjet, said: "We are very pleased to have achieved an average load factor of 72 per cent across the network in November, a traditionally weak month with travel down ahead of the festive season.

“Our newly-launched Dar es Salaam - Mbeya route continues to prove extremely popular to the point that we have increased frequency to a flight every day from  December 16. 

“Additionally, flights are now on sale for our second international route, Dar es Salaam to Lusaka, which is planned to launch on February 1, 2014.  This route will link two strong commercial hubs - indeed, the port in Dar es Salaam is Zambia's closest sea port.

“On 29th November we celebrated the first anniversary of our inaugural flight.  Over the past 12 months we have established a reputation for reliability and punctuality unprecedented in African aviation, giving our customers the confidence to plan ahead and book seats early. 

"Our brand is now one of the best known in Tanzania and is becoming increasingly recognised throughout Africa.  Our customers rate all aspects of our service as excellent and on Facebook we are the most "liked" airline in Africa.  Most importantly, we believe we have stimulated demand by making air-travel accessible to more people with many of our customers being first-time flyers.

“To date, we have carried over 350,000 passengers with an average load factor of 73 percent on each flight and 11 percent of our customers paying only $20 plus tax for their flight.  As we enter our second year of operation, I believe we have now laid firm foundations for our expansion towards becoming a truly pan-African low-cost airline."

 Richard Bodin, Chief Commercial Officer, said:“We are delighted so far with our sales for the important Christmas period.  While it's still early days, indications are that December bookings and revenues will be strong. We have already seen flights filling up quickly and we are recording historically high yields.  We are also seeing increases in ancillary revenue sales.

“Additionally, our anniversary sales event last month proved successful. Focusing on selling seats in the traditionally weak post-Christmas period, we recorded our best ever sales day, selling more seats in 24 hours than ever before whilst achieving a better than expected yield.”