Lift launches flights to Durban — How prices compare to Airlink, FlySafair and SAA

South Africa’s newest budget airline, Lift, has added a second route to its operations for the first time, offering trips between Johannesburg and Durban.

Since its launch, Lift has only offered flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

On Thursday, the airline announced it would start offering three daily return flights between Johannesburg and Durban, saying it was the “most requested” route to be added to its schedule.

Bookings are now open, with Lift’s first flights between OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and King Shaka International near Durban taking off on 26 October 2022.

Lift also plans to add flights between Durban and Cape Town from November 2022. It will confirm booking dates for these flights in the “coming weeks”.

The company joins a raft of airlines adding routes or additional flights to their operations over the past few weeks, as travel across the world has continued to pick up as the Covid-19 pandemic wanes.

For domestic flights, FlySafair added a new route between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg at the start of September 2022.

According to BusinessTech, South Africa is also getting five new international flights to Australia, Belgium, the US, and Mauritius.

How Lift’s prices compare

We’ve compared Lift’s ticket prices between Johannesburg and Durban with other major airlines that operate on the route.

We used the cheapest fares from each airline for one adult with one piece of checked-in baggage.

For our first comparison, we looked at prices for flying on the first weekend after Lift starts operations on the route.

Lift was the cheapest of all the airlines, with FlySafair a close second.

The picture is very different for those looking to book flights between Johannesburg and Durban over the December holidays.

Lift’s one-way and return flights between Johannesburg and Durban were substantially more expensive than during the first weekend of October 2022 — almost double the price of FlySafair.

Another notable finding was that South African Airways was often the most expensive option.

The table below shows the cheapest fares for one-way and return trips between Johannesburg and Durban over the December holidays.

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