South African low cost airline, Lift, has announced the cancellation of all July flights from the 5th to the 31st.
The announcement comes after government lifted the country to adjusted level 4 Lockdown restrictions. The new restrictions mean that travelers can only fly to or from Johannesburg with good reason, namely business or transit. For Lift Airline, which predominantly flies the Cape Town – Johannesburg route, the new restrictions will have a huge impact due to the fact that ‘business travel is now negligible as many people choose to work remotely’
Lift Co-founder, Jonathan Ayache had this to say:
“People are choosing to stay at home for now. Understandably so. Our crew are also better off staying put until this wave recedes and the vaccination rollout reaches critical mass. We are very lucky that LIFT’s agile, demand-driven business model allows us to scale up and down as things change. And change they certainly do.”
Lift has been created and built for the Covid and post-covid world of travel with flexibility as one of the core aspects of its model and the airline claims that over 1000 passengers have taken advantage of this flexibility to change their bookings in the face of schedule changes
South Africa’s domestic carriers have had to adapt to the new travel protocols by either cutting flights or adjusting their schedules, a frustrating time for an industry that was starting to show consistent signs of recovery
“In our first 7 months of operation, we operated over 1150 flights and transported more than 150,000 passengers with a 97% on-time performance and fantastic feedback on our service and overall performance. It’s a frustrating time for South Africans. For now, stay safe and we can’t wait to be flying around our beautiful country again soon.” said Jonathan Ayache, CEO of LIFT
