‘Between Friday and Monday there are 38 flights out of Durban.’ The Money Show interviews the FlySafair CEO, Elmar Conradie.
Low-cost airline FlySafair has scheduled extra flights into Durban to help transport supplies to violence-stricken KwaZulu-Natal.
This includes essentials like food, medical provisions and yeast to secure bread supplies the airline said.
The decision was also made to help people who want to leave the city, where residents are reported to be running out of food.
Bruce Whitfield finds out more from FlySafair CEO Elmar Conradie.
It’s been “an interesting week” says Conradie – on Monday the airline was still considering whether to actually cancel all its flights to Durban.
By Tuesday we were inundated with requests – at first, just people who wanted to get out of Durban. So we started having additional flights which we normally wouldn’t do at such short notice.
Elmar Conradie, CEO – FlySafair
We’ve added quite a few flights, especially from Friday onwards… about 18 flights for the weekend… The first flight sold out within less than an hour…
Elmar Conradie, CEO – FlySafair
Then from yesterday [Wednesday], with the N3 being closed, we started getting requests from companies… One of the issues is getting freight out of Durban to Johannesburg, to Cape Town etcetera.
Elmar Conradie, CEO – FlySafair
The people in Durban don’t have food, they’re looking for places to buy food! At first it was just a question of how do we get food to our own staff… then more and more calls from companies about helping…
Elmar Conradie, CEO – FlySafair
Between Friday and Monday there will be around 38 flights out of Durban says Conradie, not only to Joburg and Cape Town but also to Gqeberha and East London.
Aside from adding flights, FlySafair is allowing passengers to take an extra bag along.
For more detail, listen below…