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Low-cost and traditional airlines

  • Over 950 airlines
  • South African Airways, British Airways
  • Kulula, Mango
  • Flights up to 50% off

Where do low cost airlines fly to?

You can travel on many routes with low cost airlines, and the low costs of tickets allow to save up for other expenses.

  • The expanded network of connections allows low cost airlines serve an increasing number of routes. Carriers research the demand for specific connections and create additional ones to the most popular routes. You can easily travel between most South Africa airports with them. Thanks to the cooperation of carriers, you can use a connecting flight with two different companies on one route.

  • Not all connections realised by low cost airlines are offered all year round. Budget carriers are oriented to the profitability of their flights and cannot afford to allow empty transits. Hence, most flights to well-known holiday resorts and the largest tourist pearls are suspended during low season. In turn, in winter additional flights are opened to cities located near the Alpine ski resort.

  • Of no little importance for low cost carriers is also the airport, from where the connections are realized. The largest cities are handled by a few airports. The farther away the airport’s location from the city centre, the lower the airport fee. Hence, you can be sure that when choosing a flight to Cape Town, you will land on an airport located several kilometres from the centre. There are often hangars of low cost carriers in such airports.

Airlines ranking

  Airline Ticket prices Comfort Punctuality Staff Overall rating No. of reviews
1. FlySafair FlySafair (FA) 3.4 4.2 4.5 4.7 4.2 7
2. Mango Mango (JE) 5 5 5 5 4.8 1
3. British Airways British Airways (BA) 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 3.9 475
4. Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopian Airlines (ET) 3.9 3.9 4.1 4.1 3.9 38
5. Air France Air France (AF) 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 3.9 419
6. Kenya Airways Kenya Airways (KQ) 3.9 3.8 4.3 4.5 4 26
7. Lufthansa Lufthansa (LH) 3.6 4.1 4.1 4.4 4.1 1792
8. Air Mauritius Air Mauritius (MK) 3.6 4 4 4 4 5
9. Fastjet Airlines Fastjet Airlines (FN) 4.5 4 3 5 3.9 2
10. Airlink Airlink (4Z) 5 5 4 5 4.2 2

Which airlines are the cheapest?

When looking for the cheapest airlines, it is worth considering a few factors. The air ticket price is not the only cost of the connection.

  • Low cost airlines must address the profitability of their connections; hence they look for savings in every possible way. They offer a flight service on a given route, without paying much attention to additional services which could generate costs. The conditions in cabins are bearable, but we should not hope for luxury. The seats are very close to each other, allowing to carry more passengers at once and to sell more tickets. On top of that, it rarely happens that the ticket price includes meals, for which you have to pay extra.

  • The location of the destination aerodrome has influence on the costs of your travel. Transfer from the airport to the city centre or hotel located in a seaside resort generates real costs. No major problems will be encountered in larger agglomerations, which have a convenient number of connections with public transport. You can travel from the airport by train or metro. In the case of poorly urbanised places or after an overnight flight, we are left with the most expensive means of communication which is the taxi.

  • Another matter which you must consider is the baggage. Low cost airlines, wanting to take the largest number of passengers possible on board, limit the weight of the baggage carried to the aircraft. The point is to not exceed the maximum take-off weight of the plane. Hence, it is rather usual to have extra fees for a suitcase. It is worth carrying as little as possible and pack into a bag that fits within the size of hand luggage. On the Internet there are many clips which instruct on how to pack your items.

Airfare discounts

It is worth being vigilant and tracking the prices of air connections, because the prices are subject to frequent change.

  • A large air ticket discount is the dream of everyone looking to book a ticket. Although discounts are quite common, you must dedicate some time and patience to the purchase of cheap tickets. The carrier’s discounts and, what follows, the ticket prices are impacted by various factors. There may be a drastic change of the price of fuel on the markets or the airport charge may drop. The clients’ interest also impact the ticket price. Regularly tracking the cost of a given connection, you are able to buy a ticket even several percent cheaper.

  • Discounts often depend from the carrier’s specific style of conducting its policy. Sometimes cheaper tickets will be offered on certain days of the week. Often, carriers lower the prices after the weekend or in morning hours. The chance for purchasing cheap tickets is also the opening of a new connection. As part of the promotion of the route, the carrier decides to send off the first planes without profit.

  • It is easier to find promotional prices of air tickets a few weeks before the flight. If you hold off until the very end, it might turn out that the prices have surged. We must resist the illusion of a fairy-tale last-minute occasion, as cheap airlines do not conduct such a policy. It is also worth keeping an eye on flights from other nearby airports. If you have two airports close to home, it may turn out that they realise the same connection and that the ticket prices vary considerably.

Low cost airlines in South Africa

  • The growing interest in air tickets has contributed to the appearance of carriers who offer cheap air tickets. Although all carriers have their headquarters outside the borders of South Africa, they realise connections from South African cities as well. There is no airport in this country which would not operate low cost flights. What is more, the aircrafts of low cost carriers even fly on routes between South African cities.

  • The most popular carriers who offer cheap air tickets are the Irish Ryan and the Hungarian Wizz. The connections realised by these carriers can be found almost across the whole of Europe. For the convenience of the passengers and to facilitate communication, the staff serving the routes from South Africa are mostly South African citizens. Thanks to this it is virtually impossible to sense the country of origin of the chosen carrier.

  • Besides the mentioned companies, there are also other low cost carriers on the territory of South Africa. One of the largest networks of connections is handled by Kukula.com with its headquarters located mainly domestically. The remaining carriers deal first and foremost with all realised connections in the region from which they originate. Norwegian Airlines are most frequent on the routes to Scandinavia and you can fly to Germany with Eurowings.

  • Which airlines are the safest?

    If, before your departure on holidays, you are searching a carrier in terms of the safest airlines, you might not find it there. These kinds of plebiscites participated by transportation carries from the entire world take into consideration low cost carriers only occasionally. This is because the criteria for choosing the airlines do not just take into account the number of accidents and aircraft failures. The standard inside the aircraft, the space for every passenger as well as the number of meals are also considered.

    Low cost carriers do not stand a chance in a competition with the world’s top in such categories. The reason is their policy which assumes a lowered standard and extra fees in exchange for cheap tickets. An air carrier’s absence in a rank doesn’t necessarily mean that its flights are less safe. The take-off and landing procedures as well as all the controls carried out for each aircraft are the same. No one would allow an aircraft to operation if it didn’t meet the stringest safety standards.

  • Where to search low cost carriers?

    The offers of low cost carriers do not have greater competition in terms of ticket prices. The low air ticket price is mainly due to the resignation of additional services and facilities. If you decide on flying with a low cost carrier, you should consider that the travelling comfort may not be the highest. On the other hand, you can easily handle such inconveniences during a short, few hours flight.

    Tracking the offers of individual airlines may not be sufficient to find an interesting proposition. The best tool to find and book cheap air tickets is flight search engines. Such places contain the offers of all carriers, also the low cost ones. This allows you to choose not only the cheapest air tickets, but also to check the connections from other cities, as well as connecting flights. Just choose your destination and approximate date. With good search engines like eSky, you can also book a hotel or purchase supplementary insurance.