FlySafair has received approval to operate flights to 11 new destinations within the southern African region, it announced on Monday.
The Air Services Licensing Council of South Africa has approved FlySafair's application to operate flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls.
In addition, the airline has been approved for frequencies from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi and the Seychelles, as well as between Cape Town and Windhoek. Its application for routes between Johannesburg and Harare, Windhoek and Zanzibar, and additional frequencies to Mauritius are still pending.
FlySafair can now engage the relevant airport and civil aviation authorities in each market and begin planning its flight schedules.
"While this is a big milestone, there is still a fair amount of work ahead of us from an operational perspective," says Kirby Gordon, chief marketing officer of FlySafair. "By launching a host of new services, we hope to provide passengers with more options for air travel at a competitive price."
Since the beginning of the year, FlySafair has added four new aircraft to its current schedule with one more on the way in January. While the new capacity forms part of the airline's long-term growth plans, the airline expects that the additional seats will help to stabilise domestic flight prices going into the busy holiday season.