Skift Take
Are cheap fares enough to tempt Africa’s vast "unflown" market to swop a bus for an Airbus? It’s certainly not easy making the numbers work in African aviation, but a handful of low-cost carriers are showing that a bit of creative thinking makes all the difference.
Editor's Note: Skift launched a new series, Gateway, as we broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world.
We are featuring regular reports several times per week from Beijing, Singapore, Caracas and Cape Town, and look for us to add other cities soon. Gateway Singapore, for example, signifies that the reporter is writing from that city although her coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in the region. Read about the series here, and check out all the stories in the series here.
Running an airline in Africa is not for the faint-hearted, and there’s no shortage of carriers that have tried and failed to turn a profit. However, a band of nimble low-cost carriers is proving that the continent holds plenty of potential if you’re paying attention to the market.
When South African low-cost carrier Mango – a subsidiary of state-owned South African Airways – launched in 2006, part of its mandate was to tap into the "unflown market," namely peopl
