Is Mango in trouble?

[Jamex]

Just saw this on that "other" forum;

"Saw on the Mango website that Mango has reduced their schedule to almost 3 ½ aircraft. Most mid week schedules has fallen away. Surprising to see this amongst the market share going up amidst Nationwide’s demise.


Spoke to one of their crew; apparently mid weekly flights are only half full. (Or half empty) The promised bonuses at the end of the year have also mysteriously vanished. Enquiry on this revealed that the company has not made any profit, thus none performance bonuses to the crew and employees.

The said crew member also said that salary increases was due to be negotiated during the month of September. This never occurred; notices went out last month to indicate an inflation adjustment only with back pay to September. To everyone’s amazement, no inflation adjustments with back pay reflected on their pay slips end of November.

Unions such as Alpa are at a gridlock with Mango who refuses to accept them as a recognized union for the crew."

Any insiders have any info whether Mango really are in trouble? I would hate another embarrasment in the locla airline scene.

[night_rider]

Their planes should be full up at the moment...... NW im sure have handed them some business....

:O

[Aspen20]

Heard recently from a Capt. that they were flying SAA freight around to try break even. I think the only guys to pick up NW slack has been Comair / Kulula. Saw a PH- registered B737 in some kulula colours yesterday, with Dutch sounding crew. Wet lease?.

[ERASER]

Aspen20, it's a wet leased Transavia B738 (No winglets) to assist during December 07 with the high demand, it will be here until early January 08.
Comair actually did not pick up the NW slack as they withdrew their support the moment IATA suspended NW from using BSP. SAA however kept flying the pax with the limited seats available on their flights.

Believe Mango had the same credit card fraud problems as SAA.....SAA did not act against the staff involved, they were just transferred to other sections.....maybe some went to Mango or the scheme found it's way to Mango.

Mango was given a limited time (by Khaya) to make it or to shut down......if the rumours are true then it would be a shame to see Mango (the jobs) go!

Hope for the best.

E

[reptile]

(No winglets)

Looks like it sprouted a set over night.....

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g37/konyagi/phhzm_1491.jpg

[grjplanes]

That seems like winglets to me!
What's the capacity, like Mango's 738s?

[ERASER]

reptile & grjplanes : Looks like it sprouted a set over night.....

See, ....it's our furtile air, no wonder our population figure stands at 49 million.

E

PS : Yes, sorry, also surprised to see winglets suddenly appear, time for an eye check.

[punk3029]

It's a 737-800/27K 186 seater
and i,ve heard it will stay untill beginning of april 2008 atleast (that's when the contract ends)
Kulula is now training local cabin staff to man this aircraft, at the moment dutch crews fly the machine.
Maybe the remour on KLM A/c for Nation comes from this since Transavia is fully owned by KLM/AF
It runs between JNB-CPT and JNB-DUR

[dudleydick]

Mango clinches Budgie award

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dec Johannesburg - Mango has won an international airlines award for its 2007 marketing campaign, the airline said on Sunday. The competition saw Mango pitted against the likes of easyJet and Virgin Blue.
It was awarded the World Low Cost Airlines Budgie award last week and was the only African airline nominated in any category at the Budgie Awards.
Marketing manager Samantha Antoncich said creating the marketing campaign had been a challenge.
"The airline has a diverse target audience ranging from traditional leisure travel, business travel and the previously un-flown market.
"Our strategy comprised brand positioning and first year awareness, value proposition communication as well as a substantial educative element using several platforms," she said.
Mango made use of outdoor, print, digital media, broadcast, literature dissemination and activations to both acquaint consumers with the brand and educate the market on the airline's affordable travel offering.
Antoncich said the creative agency - The Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory - had over-achieved in its brief of combining strategic communication requirements into advertising messages.
As a result of the airlines marketing, Mango carried its one millionth guest in record time; had one of the largest e-commerce launches in SA online history; successfully launched Mango Plus - a world first SMME business travel product and activated the unflown market that accounts for more than 20% of guests carried at this point.
Mango said estimates alluded to the fact that Mango's market entry accounted for most of the 15% market growth experienced in domestic aviation in 2007.
"Winning the Budgie ahead of long established heavy weights easyJet and Virgin Blue, among others, has again proved that SA compares favourably against best practice global benchmarks," said Antoncich.
She said it also proved that a sound marketing strategy, a thorough line approach and a creative agency that understood a brand was a winning recipe.
- Sapa

[mactheknife]

186 seats sounds like a Mango configuration.
Guaranteed not to impress usual Kulula pax

[PAXboy]

I would not expect ANY company to make a profit in its first year - airline or any other. If they said they were going to make a profit, then they were hyping it.

[countingteeth]

um. kulula brand and 1time made a profit in their first year....

ps-> @ mactheknife : the seat pitch is 29in - same as Mango, and for that matter, the same as in the kulula branded 734s. Only the MD80s had a 32in pitch. Legroom is a thing of the past on Kulula anyway...