Mango slips up - again

[DWPTA]

Mango slips up - again
12/12/2006 10:01 - (SA)

Carla Lewis, Beeld


Johannesburg - SAA's no-frills airline, Mango, slipped down the passenger popularity rating on Sunday after flight JE169 from Johannesburg to Cape Town was delayed by three hours.

Jan Bosman of Bellville, a passenger on the flight, said it was supposed to leave at 17:00.

But at that stage there were many passengers waiting to book in, with only three counters open to serve hundreds of Mango flyers.

"Because of these poor arrangements the plane finally departed at 20:00, after losing its place in the queue to take off," he said.

Bosman said the passengers had to wait for two hours on the tarmac, without air conditioning on board their plane.

"The cabin was very humid and after two hours, one of the passengers with low blood-sugar began to hyperventilate.

"Just before take-off, the captain decided not to fly with this weak passenger and that meant we finally took off at 20:00, three hours late."

Bosman said that Mango had made no effort to communicate with the passengers, or keep them updated on the estimated time of departure.

"Nobody had a clue. The air-hostesses were eventually in tears because the people blamed them, but they also didn't know what was going down."

Mango Airline has been under fire twice since it began operating less than a month ago.

The first time was when a flight had to return to Cape Town with a broken window and the second time was when 139 passengers on flight JE 154 from Cape Town to Johannesburg were delayed for more than eight hours.

Looks like Mango is becoming the Telkom of the airline industry.

Kulula is still my fav, flew with them to George over the weekend and there was no hassles what so ever. In fact everytime I flew Kulula it's been a very good experience.

 

[Franna]

Another company we pay our hard earned tax money to ...

 

[daysleeper]

fly 1time! they rule!

I have a kalula credit card, and i've almost earned my first return flight to jhb. I wanna go to the lost city of a week in Jan. The beach there sucks compared to bikini beach in Gordon's Bay, but i reckon the babes are on par!

 

[bekdik]

A peeled mango is indeed very slippery.

 

[Jongi]

Disturbing stuff

 

[LabAnimal]

I think its understandable that they turned back because of that cracked window - so not sure why the people made such a fuss about it!. They can either die should that window break, or turn back or land - whichever. - safety comes first IMO.

As for this new issue - yea they went about it the wrong way, but what makes them so different from Onetime and Kalula? How many times have this not happened with them - and we hardly hear that much fuss about it in the news!.

- Really now!.

 

[lilDeath]

Darn shame that is. I was hoping my money would be spent on something worthwhile.

 

[GavinMannion]

I don't understand why everyone nails mango so much..

No low cost airline is ever going to be on time all the time. They are keeping the other guys honest so I say good for them.

Last year with Kulula I had to wait for 5 hours at JHB airport before getting a flight. No food, no apologies no nothing... That's what you get with low cost deal with it...

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong (which I probably am) but I think the reason that SAA started Mango in the first place was to make use of their fleet of old Boeing's after slowly changing their new fleet to Airbus? The reasoning is that those Boeings look really dated inside, and definitely not worth the price of the ticket when you compare it to the interior of the new Airbuses, hence a low cost airline.

 

[jontyB]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong (which I probably am) but I think the reason that SAA started Mango in the first place was to make use of their fleet of old Boeing's after slowly changing their new fleet to Airbus? The reasoning is that those Boeings look really dated inside, and definitely not worth the price of the ticket, hence a low cost airline.

I thought the mango boeings were new

 

[Highflyer_GP]

I thought the mango boeings were new

Well I think it's all about the branding and money. To my knowledge at least I'm pretty sure that SAA are slowly phasing the Airbuses into all their flights. Previously they only used the Airbuses for international flights and Boeings for local flights. Now a stronger (read more expensive) branding in the form of SAA cannot continue charging their current rates on local flights on planes with a dated interior.

It would make business sense for them to phase the Airbuses in for local flights as well so that the ticket price warrants the interior specs. Had they continued with the Boeings, it would mean that sooner or later they would have had to drastically reduce prices. Think about it, why would they want to do that when they have two fleets - they can keep existing prices under SAA, as well as reduce prices on the Boeings by creating a budget airline. It's all about the $$$ - I highly doubt that the Mango Boeings are new.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Mango is currently leasing four 737-800s from SAA.

The 737-800 was a stretched version of the 737-700, and replaces the 737-400. The -800 was launched by Hapag-Lloyd Flug (now Hapagfly) in 1994 and entering service in 1998. The 737-800 seats 162 passengers in a 2-class layout, or 189 in 1-class, and competes with the A320.

Wikipedia - Boeing 737-800

 

[ernstn]

I don't understand why everyone nails mango so much..

No low cost airline is ever going to be on time all the time. They are keeping the other guys honest so I say good for them.

Last year with Kulula I had to wait for 5 hours at JHB airport before getting a flight. No food, no apologies no nothing... That's what you get with low cost deal with it...

Kulula,1 time and Nationwide are not funded by taxpayers money such as SAA has been. SAA is ten to one using Mango unfairly(ie not entirely on its own feet, but also raking in some of SAA's tax money) to undermine Kulula ,1 time and Nationwide.

Remember the other low cost carriers has to show a profit otherwise they will not exist, but judging by past circumstances, SAA has no idea of running a profitable airline in a fair competitive market, and like Telkom, relied on legislation to protect itself, and even then cannot be profitable.

Once they have killed off the opposition, they can then run their normal high-price shenanigans!

 

[rwenzori]

I thought the mango boeings were new

Mango's fleet is less than five years old.

according to this page:

http://www.africanpilot.co.za/Newsletters/3/135.php

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Kulula,1 time and Nationwide are not funded by taxpayers money such as SAA has been. SAA is ten to one using Mango unfairly(ie not entirely on its own feet, but also raking in some of SAA's tax money) to undermine Kulula ,1 time and Nationwide.

Remember the other low cost carriers has to show a profit otherwise they will not exist, but judging by past circumstances, SAA has no idea of running a profitable airline in a fair competitive market, and like Telkom, relied on legislation to protect itself, and even then cannot be profitable.

Once they have killed off the opposition, they can then run their normal high-price shenanigans!

That's pretty much what I have in mind.

 

[AntiThesis]

SAA is also getting freakin' slack nowadays. Most of the flights to and from EL have been delayed by quite some time (ok we're small but still) with the only explanation for a 3 hour delay being "Rotation". No explanation of what rotation is, why it should make a plane 3 hours late or anything.

Then told that it was bad weather, then that they screwed up the schedule. BAH.

 

[GavinMannion]

Kulula,1 time and Nationwide are not funded by taxpayers money such as SAA has been. SAA is ten to one using Mango unfairly(ie not entirely on its own feet, but also raking in some of SAA's tax money) to undermine Kulula ,1 time and Nationwide.

Remember the other low cost carriers has to show a profit otherwise they will not exist, but judging by past circumstances, SAA has no idea of running a profitable airline in a fair competitive market, and like Telkom, relied on legislation to protect itself, and even then cannot be profitable.

Once they have killed off the opposition, they can then run their normal high-price shenanigans!

Well I am pretty sure Kulula and 1time are going to be watching them very very closely to make sure that doesn't happen.

I don't know to much about it but didn't Mango basically just receive a R300m loan from SAA to start up and they have to pay it back ([-]low[/-]no interest)

I know they don't use the same catering company but that is pretty much the end of my knowledge on this one.

Oh wait, Kulula is owned by BA isn't it? Same thing except it's not our tax money then... They could also attempt to push people out of business.

I want EasyJet to come in...

 

[Drone 42]

Oh wait, Kulula is owned by BA isn't it? Same thing except it's not our tax money then... They could also attempt to push people out of business.

Kulula is owned by Comair. And Comair also runs the BA franchise in SA. Think the loan was 100 million not 300.

 

[Kommedoor]

You guys make me laugh!

Do you realise that Mango's 800's are on average not older than about 6 years - in aircraft terms that is "brand new". Dated interior my ass - ROFL.

Compare this to the other ones such as "One upon a time" and "Nasiewyd" with most of their aircraft having been built in the sixties and seventies If you only knew...

 

[Syndyre]

No low cost airline is ever going to be on time all the time. They are keeping the other guys honest so I say good for them.

Don't think a taxpayer subsidised airline is going to keep anyone honest, more likely to see predatory pricing etc!