South Africa’s largest airline cutting flights
FlySafair has cut or “trimmed” several unprofitable routes amid soaring aviation turbine fuel costs. However, South Africa’s largest airline is being coy about which routes were being affected.
The company suspended its Lanseria–East London (KuGompo City) route on 7 April 2026 and, more recently, “trimmed” its Lanseria–Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) flights.
A passenger previously affected by the East London cancellations told MyBroadband this week that their flight to Port Elizabeth had also been cancelled.
Upon contacting FlySafair to learn their options, they were informed that the Lanseria–Port Elizabeth route had been scrapped and that they would need to fly from OR Tambo.
MyBroadband contacted FlySafair for feedback, only to be told that the route was still operating as scheduled and remained available for sale, with no immediate plans to suspend it.
Only after MyBroadband pressed the issue and provided specifics about the cancelled flight did FlySafair confirm that it had made “trims”.
“The schedule has been trimmed, but the route has not been cancelled,” FlySafair chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon said.
“The flight on 13 May has been removed, with Johannesburg (OR Tambo) to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) remaining as an alternative.”
Gordon explained that during that week, there were still flights between Lanseria and Port Elizabeth on the 11th, 14th, 15th, and 17th.
“We continuously evaluate our network to ensure we’re deploying capacity where it is most sustainable and best meets customer demand,” stated Gordon.
He said that while fuel costs were a factor, they were one of several considerations that informed the decision to suspend or cut back on routes.
“It’s also worth noting that this is not a one-way trend. Over the same period, we’ve added capacity in other parts of the network,” said Gordon.
“For example, increasing frequencies on our Johannesburg–Harare service, from one flight daily to two flights a day, which is performing well.”
Gordon said the realities of the fuel price were challenging to FlySafair, the industry, and customers, adding that they remained committed to managing the issue of surcharges transparently.
“We also manage efficiencies as best we can to keep fares as affordable as possible. Great news this week was a small decrease in surcharges as published to our website.”
He explained that customers can click the ‘Show price change’ button to see the updates. “Of course, we are dealing with a moving target, but managing it as best we can.”
Last week, FlySafair told News24 that it had cut several flights from its schedule but would not suspend any major routes in the near term.
MyBroadband asked which routes had been impacted and whether more would be cut, but FlySafair would not directly answer the questions.
Flight fuel surcharges
FlySafair introduced a temporary fuel surcharge for the first time in its history after local airlines were notified of sudden, drastic increases in Jet A1 fuel prices.
This came after the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran, which resulted in Iran preventing freight ships and oil tankers from traversing the Strait of Hormuz.
“We will be specifically itemising this temporary dynamic fuel surcharge on all tickets to ensure fairness and transparency to our customers,” Gordon said at the time.
Exact surcharges are published on the FlySafair website. The amounts vary by route length to reflect the actual fuel consumption required per journey.
“Our teams are modelling fuel prices airport by airport and reviewing potential tankering strategies to ensure the surcharge reflects the minimum required amount,” Gordon stated.
“This is not a profit mechanism; it’s a measure to maintain service continuity while being upfront with customers.”
Airlink CEO de Villiers Engelbrecht told MyBroadband that they had also adjusted fares in response to the oil price shock.
Airlines Association of South Africa CEO Aaron Munetsi said that a decline in local fuel refining exacerbated the jet fuel supply and price situation in South Africa.
“Local jet fuel production all but ceased in SA following the July 2021 riots and the April 2022 floods,” Munetsi said.
“Those events saw the SAPREF facility in Durban halt production and coincided with the shutdown of the Astron refinery in Cape Town, which was offline for several years while undergoing refurbishment.”
While the Astron refinery recently resumed production, its output has remained low compared to the past. “As a result, over 90% of jet fuel for the country is imported,” Munetsi said.
“This adds layers of costs for shipping, land transport to NATREF (if the fuel is destined for the Reef), onward distribution and storage at airports.”
Jet fuel transported via the Transnet multi-product pipeline from Durban is also subject to additional tariffs.
In addition, the South African Revenue Service imposes more duties and taxes on imported fuel, having reclassified fuel companies as suppliers rather than producers.
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