Price hikes: Expect to fork out R36k to fly your family to the Cape; R15k for a roof

It’s the season to be jolly – if you are in the airline and hospitality business. For cash strapped consumers, going on holiday may be more financial folly. Prices are exorbitant.

It can cost a family of four, departing on 15 December and returning 3 weeks later, just before the work year officially starts, R36 000 to fly on South African Airways to Cape Town. And that’s before you buy a meal or find a place to sleep.

Other airlines are not much cheaper. The only real alternative for those who want to be in Cape Town over the Christmas/New Year period is to fly on less popular days, like 21 December or Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Flights on those dates are at the more palatable R2 500 mark.

Accommodation aggregator Bookings.com lists several accommodation options in Cape Town. For a home, expect to pay R45 000 for a family of four for a week, while a Strand holiday cottage will set travellers back R15 000 for seven nights.

Uber luxury at the V&A Luxury Apartments has a price tag of R112 000 for the week between Christmas and New Year while the five-star Cape Royale will relieve a family of four of R121 000 for the same week.

On average, families will not get away with less than R40 000 for a week’s stay in season.

SAA most expensive airline

SAA is the most expensive airline in the country with flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town over next week’s long weekend and between Christmas Eve and 2 January at R4 458 per person, one way.

Lift and Airlink clock in at joint second position with pricing around R3 600 for a one-way ticket and FlySafair is somewhat cheaper, most flights at R2 999 and a handful a few hundred Rand more. Add restaurants and entertainment to that, and the bill rockets even more.

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It’s cheaper to fly to Zanzibar for a week.

Tour operator Africa Stay presently offers week-long December holidays that include accommodation, meals and flights for a family of four can start from as little as R50 000 with the added benefit of zero additional entertainment costs, breakfast and dinner included or all-inclusive packages at five-star resorts.

For a leisure destination with far less capacity, like George, there are simply no flights available over the festive season.

Prices ‘not that much higher’

FlySafair’s Kirby Gordon suggested that fares are not that much higher than usual.

He said: “The difference is that flights sell out due to higher demand so what we see is that those last, most expensive seats start to hit the market. These prices certainly serve to bring up the average yield per seat but are not at all indicative of what that average actually is. People who booked early got far better deals than those who are trying to book their December flights now.”

Lift boss Jonathan Ayache said all the cheap seats are sold out already. Now, it’s last-minute-dot-com higher fares.

He said: “The same holds true for hotels. All the cheap rooms, as too the cheaper seats, are sold out already.”

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He said the key to more affordable travel is forward planning.

Airlink chief executive Rodger Foster said: “Current fares reflect airlines’ rising input costs. The biggest single cost is jet fuel, which is double what it cost a year ago. Like everyone else, we also have to contend with higher interest rates from our lenders and financiers, the weakened Rand (while a significant portion of our costs are incurred in USD) and a raft of other inflationary items.“

Foster also said: “On the other hand, the industry has lost some capacity as a result of SAA’s dramatic downsizing and the exits of SA Express, Mango and Comair.”

Following the collapse of Comair and Mango into liquidation and business rescue respectively, prices are now closer to reality.

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The days of Kulula and Mango flooding routes with capacity at prices that were below cost are over. A more realistic return fare to Cape Town is a lot nearer R2 500 than days gone by when tickets could’ve been bought for R1 500.

FlySafair, which has around two-thirds market share domestically, operates 17 return flights to Cape Town from OR Tambo, with a further four from Lanseria, north-west of Johannesburg.

This is an extraordinary volume of seats on this route, with aircraft taking off in both directions at least once an hour. Still, this hasn’t replaced the lost capacity from Kulula, British Airways and Mango (which was forced to take over the bulk of SAA’s domestic routes in 2018).