FlySafair sets new aviation record with R1 sale

FlySafair said it set a “new record in domestic aviation since it was essentially paying passengers to fly” when it launched its R1 sale to celebrate its first birthday last week. This is because while they advertised flights for R1, the company still paid airport taxes of R150.

The low cost airline caused a frenzy on Tuesday last week when it announced a limited release of 30 000 tickets at just R1 each to celebrate its first birthday. While it was later forced to apologise to disgruntled customers for servers crashing, it confirmed it had recorded 30 times more traffic to its website during the sale.

“Our tech partners in the US, who have experience with sales of this nature said they had never seen demand at this level before,” Kirby Gordon, VP of Sales and Distribution for FlySafair said in a statement.

“We regret that many people were unable to access the site to take advantage of this incredible deal. We knew going into this promotion that there would be risks – the anger that was evident among consumers was definitely one of them. But we’ve been thrilled by stories of children going to see the ocean for the first time, and families having a chance to reconnect after years of not seeing each other. This made it all worth it.”

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