1Time Airlines

1Time airways was the second low cost airlines to enter the South African market, after Kulula. They are based at OR Tambo airport. The airline only started in 2004, and started with a flight from Joburg to Cape town. It was launched, and is owned by a company that manages the maintenance for aircraft.

1Time airlines is often seen as the underdog in the low cost airline industry, and for good reason. Their current competitors include Mango, Kulula and SAA. Lets look at each of these separately to see why 1Time is the little guy. Mango airlines is owned and run by SAA. This means that it is technically subsidised and paid for by the government, that is, the tax payer.

Comair Airlines

Kulula, which was the first budget airline, is owned by Comair, which of course is a subsidiary of BA. They no doubt came up with the idea of launching a low cost airline in South Africa due to operating in the UK with RyanAir and EasyJet. Kulula therefore also has a massive conglomerate backing it.

Then there is of course SAA, the state owned and run airline, which is continuously bailed out by the government.

As 1Time is owned privately and has no such backing it's easy to see how they have an uphill battle on their hands. However they have been doing a great job, and in 2006 carried over 1 million passengers. Many passengers choose to fly with them even if they do charge slightly more for two reasons. Firstly, they claim to have the largest leg room for economy in SA. Secondly, passengers feel that if they support the two well-backed airlines, then this will eventually push 1time out of the market, and lead to less competition and higher prices overall.

They run flights to a full range of domestic locations including: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, East London, Port Elizabeth, George, and Zanzibar.

1Time Airlines

Marc writes about 1Time as well as other airlines that have cheap flights in and around South Africa.