Competition has arrived at Lanseria Airport, previously solely operated by Comair’s Kulula airline.
Low-cost airline Mango announced yesterday that as from June 1, it would launch flights from Lanseria Airport, north of Johannesburg, to Cape Town.
The announcement came a year after 1Time reported Kulula to the Competition Commission for locking out competition with an exclusivity rights deal with the airfield.
The agreement was signed after Kulula’s holding company Comair invested in infrastructure development at Lanseria.
The Competition Commission subsequently ruled that while the agreement was anti-competitive, Kulula had the right to recoup the money it had invested in the airfield.
Mango said that bookings for its inaugural flights at a cost of R495 one way would open today. It said that commuters could take advantage of three flights that would be available every weekday.
“Lanseria is the second route launch for Mango in the past year,” chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout said.
The airline launched its Johannesburg-Bloemfontein route last year.
However, joint chief executive of Comair, Gidon Novick, said the company only had exclusivity at the airport for a year. The right expired in 2007.
“We started operating from the airport five years ago, and we had exclusivity for a year, which was a short period,” Novick said.
He said that the big question was whether Lanseria would be able to accommodate the additional flights given its size.
Lanseria general manager Gavin Sayce said that the airport was planning to upgrade its runway.
Rodney James, the chief executive of 1Time, said the airline was looking to offer flights from Lanseria when facilities were upgraded later this year. - Dineo Matomela