PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - kulula.com vs 1time
View Single Post
Old 15th Jan 2004, 03:09
  #9 (permalink)  
George Tower
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Cape Town SA and Manchester UK
Posts: 481
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
No one has actually ventured an opinion as to whether or not they [1 time] stand a chance of being successful? In the current market it seems like they're taking a rather large gamble.

It seems the domestic market is pretty much saturated

SAA has always got the SA taxpayer to bail them out so their market share seems quite safe from any competition. Comair flies the very successful BA brand which probably means they might not grow but have a secure market share.

Kulula seem to have massively expanded in less than 3 years of being in business (yeah I know it's Comair), so it seems to me that if 1-time compete purely on price grounds Kulula has the market share and it would seem reasonable profit margins to respond robuslty to anything that 1 time did regarding cheap pricing.

What I would be interested to know is how profitable the feeder routes are such as those operated by SA Express and SA Airlink as these carriers it appears have a monopoly to places such as Bloemfontein, Kimberley, East London etc. As these route have no competition.
George Tower is offline