Fastjet Share Discussion Threads

[tenapen] 28/1/2018 13:51

Subscribe to the FT to read: Financial Times;

Twenty-three African states launch single aviation market


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I dont subscride so .....

[jimmyloser] 25/1/2018 16:53

When a plane is on a long haul and at a cruising altitude, peeps start getting bored................exactly what is happening here.

Time for the Captain to say a few words?

impo/dyor

[zcaprd7] 13/1/2018 10:32

Erm, it was low oil prices that brought this to its knees last time.Counter intuitively, higher oil prices are good for all the African countries they operate in, increasing sales.

[dodge city] 11/1/2018 22:04

No wonder you are called loser.

[jimmyloser] 11/1/2018 13:22

More speculation and tosh.

[dodge city] 11/1/2018 13:04

The company should have confirmed whether or not it is cash flow positive by now.

It's pretty obvious they are not.

It also pretty obvious that the mkt cap of this company is way too high.

A 10p share price would be very generous for this rubbish.

[jimmyloser] 09/1/2018 16:22

Elaborate if you can.

[max_cady] 09/1/2018 16:08

Bad news coming here.

[jimmyloser] 21/12/2017 06:37

FASTJET has added extra flights on the Victoria Falls to Harare route in response to demand during the festive season. The airline will offer two daily return flights on the route on December 26 and 27.
Fastjet spokesperson Faith Chaitezvi, said they increased the flights between Harare and Victoria Falls in response to strong passenger demand who preferred to use their airline.
“Due to popular demand Fastjet has added two more flights between Harare and Victoria Falls this festive season. It is a way of providing flexibility to clients on their diaries during the festive season. It is a special arrangement for our clients during the festive season who will be going on holiday.
“It is peak period and we are offering flexibility for our clients to manage their diaries and still have a holiday getaway if they had not planned one. We are also concerned about regular business travellers who use this route frequently. By offering more flights this
festive season, we are eager to be taking people places and offering passengers more convenient travel options, whether for business or leisure at affordable fares,” Ms Chaitezvi said.

[zcaprd7] 21/11/2017 14:13

Has he gone yet?

[jimmyloser] 16/11/2017 07:46

Dr Charles Laurie, head of the Africa team at Verisk Maplecroft, believes that businesses in Zimbabwe will be feeling relief and "quiet euphoria" following the military takeover from President Robert Mugabe.

He says that Zimbabwe's economy has been in a "paralytic state" for the last 10 years, waiting for the issue of succession to be resolved.

Describing the "dire economic situation" in the country, Dr Laurie tells Wake Up to Money that the unemployment rate is a staggering 90% and that a large number of young Zimbabweans have to move to other countries to get work.

He says that business operations in Zimbabwe will be saying "the first steps have been taken."

[jimmyloser] 15/11/2017 19:30

A travel advisory by Fastjet on Wednesday confirmed flights between South Africa and Zimbabwe and in-country are operating as per their normal schedule.

"Yet‚ we highly recommend guests to allow extra time ahead of their flight for check-in and screening procedures‚ as those may take more time than usual‚" spokesman Hein Kaiser said.

The airline operates four daily round trip flights between Harare and Johannesburg as well as three weekly flights between Johannesburg and Victoria Falls and nine weekly flights between Harare and Victoria Falls.

Kaiser added: "Fastjet is continually monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe and will update its guests and the travel industry should circumstances change."

[boonkoh] 15/11/2017 12:33

Good to be worried about Zimbabwe at this time. Flying planes is a very fixed cost business, if planes are grounded or flights disrupted the losses can mount up quickly especially when an airline has such few routes.

[zcaprd7] 15/11/2017 11:56

Sold my other half, will see how the coup in Zimbabwe plays out...

[zcaprd7] 09/11/2017 19:22

Genius comments...

[jimmyloser] 09/11/2017 12:03

An airline must not be a political football: Ex- SAA acting CEO

If an airline ends up being used as a political football instead of being operated on business merits, that can be one of its biggest stumbling blocks, Nico Bezuidenhout, CEO of fastjet recently told Fin24.

fastjet is listed on the London Stock Exchange - the only African airline listed there. According to Bezuidenhout that means it has access to capital for funding purposes. The top 5 shareholders have about £500bn under management. It also means the airline operates on European safety standards.

He started at the helm of the low-cost African airline in August 2016 after twice being acting CEO of South African Airways (SAA) and CEO of its low-cost subsidiary Mango.

During his time at Mango, Bezuidenhout grew the airline's market share to 25% of the SA domestic air travel market.

Speaking of airlines in general, regardless of whether an airline is state-owned or privately owned, it is very important to have a distinction between management and ownership, according to Bezuidenhout.

"The management of an airline must have a clear mandate, objectives and measurement in place. Management must also be appropriately capacitated by the shareholders," Bezuidenhout recently told Fin24.

"In any business you will get what you pursue. For instance, if the business pursues capitalistic profit motives, it will get those types of outcomes. If a business pursues social motives, it will get that, but then not necessarily make profits."
Capital deployed inefficiently
Generally speaking, there is in his view too much capital being deployed inefficiently on the African continent. For instance, both private and public airlines are allowed to survive when there is "no right to survival, because revenue does not exceed cost".

He said a lot of the cracks already identified at SAA in its turnaround strategy of 2012/13 are still at play. If he had carte blanche at SAA he would, for instance, fix the aircraft equipment to make sure the aircraft are fit for the job. He would use the airline's assets effectively, including on the human resource side.

Efficiency is also essential regarding supplies to the airline.

"Often state-owned companies don't get the best bang for their buck. One just needs normal negotiation skills. We negotiated the best prices for Mango. Just because it is state-owned does not mean one must not get the best prices," he explained.

In his view, it will always be difficult for a flag carrier airline at the southern tip of Africa.

"This does not mean it cannot be resilient. It just means one has to take that variable into account when designing a flag carrier, for instance, how big it can be," explained Bezuidenhout.

"Just because one cannot sustain trying to have one of the biggest flag carriers in the world, it does not mean you cannot have a sustainable flag carrier in southern Africa. The only dictate should be that owners should be owners and managers should be managers and both should be good at what they do or they should not be there."
fastjet

When Bezuidenhout started at fastjet the airline was in severe financial distress. Over the past 12 months a turnaround plan was implemented. It entailed changes to the route network, fleet and human resource component.

The headquarters was also changed from the UK to Johannesburg, reducing overhead costs by 40%. Furthermore, there was a moved to smaller aircraft. Overall costs were reduced by 46% and unit revenue for the first half of the year is up 30%, while losses over the same period was down by 56%.

Tanzania is still the airline's biggest market, where fastjet has a more than 80% market share on routes it operates. On the Johannesburg/Harare route the airline has about 20% to 30% market share.

"A lot of what we did last year was about stabilising the business. Now we are on track to have cash flow break even for the last quarter of 2017 and we can look at growing," said Bezuidenhout.

Its latest venture was launched in Mozambique last week. It also has an agreement with private airline Federal Air by which the fastjet brand will be introduced into SA.
African aviation

Fin24 asked Bezuidenhout why investors would choose African aviation. He explained that the continent has all the ingredients for growth in the aviation industry. The continent has about 30% of the mineral resources of the world, about 20% of the global land mass, about 15% of the world's population, yet only 3% of the global aviation industry.

"Poor road and rail infrastructure on the continent means it lends itself to aviation. There is no denying the correlation between aviation growth and economic growth in any economy. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) also says some of the fastest growing aviation economies are in Africa," said Bezuidenhout.

Challenges holding growth in the aviation industry back on the continent include the regulatory environment, too many inefficient suppliers and bilateral constraints.

[zcaprd7] 09/11/2017 11:48

Halved my position here (at a 50% loss), money needed elsewhere. They have a lot more work to do, to justify the market cap.Still love the story, and I think they can get there with the new team...

[zcaprd7] 07/11/2017 16:10

Warrants at 31.5p, I'd sell them a few...

[jimmyloser] 06/11/2017 19:23

fastjet Mozambique commenced operations from Maputo on 3 November with domestic routes to Beira, Nampula and Tete, all flown on its sole ERJ 145, seen pictured here at the nation’s capital city airport the evening before the inaugural flight. With its launch, fastjet Mozambique breaks LAM Mozambique Airlines’ domestic market monopoly.
fastjet Mozambique commenced its first operations from Maputo (MPM) on 3 November, starting domestic links to Beira (BEW), Nampula (APL) and Tete (TET). The airline will operate the routes using its sole ERJ 145, with all three services going head-to-head with LAM Mozambique Airlines, currently the only carrier offering domestic services in Mozambique. The latter carrier already operates the three sectors launched by fastjet Mozambique, with it offering 18 weekly flights on the 721-kilometre link to Beira, 13 on the 1,389-kilometre sector to Nampula, and eight on the 1,096-kilometre city pairing with Tete. fastjet Mozambique will provide nine weekly flights to Beira, a daily rotation to Nampula, and four weekly services to Tete.