Blue Crane promises Whk route soonCape Town to Windhoek within 2 months Delivery delays are said to have held up the introduction of the South African airline''s flights to Namibia. Fly Blue Crane remains adamant that it will finalise its Cape Town to Windhoek route within the next few months even though it has experienced delays with the implementation of these flights. This assurance comes in spite of recent reports which indicated that Fly Blue Crane had run into funding constraints that threatened its survival a little more than a year after it launched.
According to the planning specialist of Fly Blue Crane which is headquartered in Johannesburg, Cilliers Jordaan, the airline has reassessed its route development plans and decided that the proposed route to Windhoek will now only be finalised within the next two months.
Fly Blue Crane recently experienced a delay in the delivery of the aircraft that were planned to service the Cape Town to Windhoek route and therefore it has not officially opened yet.
The airline announced in April this year that it had received approval from the South African and Namibian authorities to launch services between the two cities. The inaugural flight from Cape Town to Windhoek took place on 13 July and the return flight on 15 July, but sales for the route have not yet opened as no launch date for scheduled operations has been confirmed.
“Our route development plans have been re-assessed in line with the aircraft delivery schedule and route demand through the year. We should be finalising the route implementation plans over the next two months,” Jordaan told Namibian Sun.
He said that Fly Blue Crane moved the implementation of the Cape Town to Windhoek route to an aircraft that will be available at a later stage to ensure that the route is launched when demand is optimum since it fluctuates through the year.
Fly Blue Crane is a privately held South African carrier operating scheduled domestic services in South Africa and launched its first inaugural flight in South Africa last year September.
The airline was started by Siza Mzimela, former CEO of South African Airways (SAA) and SA Express, Theunis Potgieter and Jerome Simelane, who are also former SAA executives. The airline is South Africa''s first majority black- and woman-owned low-cost airline.
It operates a fleet Embraer Regional Jet 145 (ERJ) aircraft from its base in Johannesburg and currently operates to Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Cape Town as well to Mthatha Airport in the Eastern Cape.
ELLANIE SMIT