Mango cancels PE – Lanseria flight route due to poor demand

The route from the Port Elizabeth International Airport to Lanseria in Johannesburg has been cancelled by Mango Airlines six months after the first flight between two locations, HeraldLive reported.

Mango offered two flights from Port Elizabeth daily at R399 when the route was launched and the first flight on the Port Elizabeth – Lanseria route took off on 11 July, 2019. The route was shut down on 15 January.

Operating the route was made possible by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality along with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and Mango.

“An investment was made to infiltrate the market with sales campaigns, but things did not go according to plan so the route has been terminated,” said Mango’s spokesperson Sergio Santos – van Vuuren.

Santos-van Vuuren added that ticket buyers would be refunded or will be permitted to use the OR Tambo – Port Elizabeth route.

The executive director of Bay economic development, Anele Qaba, said that the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality was already looking at alternative plans for the ticket buyers.

He said the municipality had expected the airline to offer just four weekly flights with the numbers gradually increasing.

“The final decision is made by the operator unfortunately so the 14 weekly flights that were introduced by the operator, was introduced in order to stimulate the market,” said Qaba.

He said that Mango informed the municipality that the route was cancelled due to poor demand.

The metro’s economic development portfolio head, Marlon Daniels, who was part of the negotiations with Mango, said he had hoped the route would have survived for a longer period than it has.

“It seems these negotiations were just a flash in the pan. The route never showed any profit, but it was early days and hopefully we will be able to come up with an alternative as this route was handy,” he said

“We must apologise to everyone who started to depend on this route but it was beyond our control,” he concluded.