South African airlines are struggling, but FlySafair hopes to weather the storm

For more than two months, airport terminals in South Africa sat eerily silent. As the spread of coronavirus crippled demand for air travel across the globe, the country enacted one of the world's strictest lockdowns on March 27, effectively banning all commercial passenger flights. South Africa has seven main domestic carriers, and as a result of these unprecedented times, aviation economist Joachim Vermooten says four of them, as of this writing, have entered business rescue, a bankruptcy protection process. Two of the carriers are divisions of Comair, and the others are the state-owned South African Airways and SA Express. SAA is in discussions to receive a $1.2b bailout from the government. While SAA's financial troubles began before the lockdown, Vermooten says coronavirus has compounded the situation. Yet amidst this turbulent time, South African domestic low-cost carrier FlySafair says its business model will help it weather the storm. It returned to the skies mid-June, having so far managed to avoid business rescue. That doesn't mean it will be easy, says Kirby Gordon, FlySafair's head of Sales and Distribution. "Lockdown means a total shutdown of all operations and zero revenue, which means that clawing back the losses endured during this lockdown is going to be a slow process," Gordon says. FlySafair launched in 2014 and has since grown into one of the country's most recognized brands.<br/>