Budget airlines launch new flights to Africa, Thailand

Over the past year, budget airlines around the world have significantly expanded their reach with flights that span farther and farther distances.

Africa, specifically, has been on the radar of a couple of airlines. London-based EasyJet (EJTTF) recently announced a fresh route between London’s Gatwick Airport and Luxor in southern Egypt; the route will start running in November.

Related: Floodgates opened: Every other airline brings back direct flight to Africa

Oslo-based Norse Atlantic Airways NRSAF now also has a 5,188 nautical mile flight between London and Cape Town. With the inaugural flight occurring on Oct. 28, the fresh route runs on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane (BA) thrice per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

First Norse Atlantic Airlines flight between London and Cape Town runs fully booked

In keeping with the airline, every seat on the Oct. 28 flight changed into booked in both directions. The $486 one-way rate that Norse currently displays on its web pages for certain weekdays in November is significantly lower than the upwards of $2,000 one would pay for the same route on a mainstream airline like British Airways or South African Airways.

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The $486 tickets are a promotional rate or not it truly is being offered to market the fresh flight; typical pricing is in the $600 range.

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Meanwhile, British Airways reprised a route between Gatwick and Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport that it discontinued after the steep drop in traveler numbers to Asia at some point of the covid-19-19 pandemic in 2020. JetStar, an Australian low-cost subsidiary of Qantas Airways (QUBSF) , has a fresh route to the Thailand capital from the Australian city of Brisbane — all of these flights are designed to tap into tourist interest.

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“All of us know that Bangkok has been a highly anticipated route restart for our customers, so we are thrilled to see it firmly back on our global route map,” said Neil Chernoff, British Airways chief planning and strategy officer, in a statement about the fresh Bangkok route.

Given the geographical distance between Africa and Asia from the United States, such low-cost flights do now not currently exist for Americans — most of the cross-continental budget airlines go between East Coast cities and European capitals comparable to London, Paris, Copenhagen and Reykjavik. Iceland, specifically, offers flights on both its flagship carrier, Icelandair, and budget airline Play.

Norse, however, also said that it expects its new route to Cape Town to be popular among Americans who may travel there from London. It has been marketing the route as a strategy to “break the duopoly” that for a lot of years has been held by British Airways and South African Airways by offering a particularly competitive rate (as any budget airline, the business model is to win over customers with a low base fare after which make up for the adaptation with fees for bags and seat selection).

"At Norse Atlantic Airways, we believe that each person deserves the chance to experience the wonders of the arena and our new route to Cape Town will allow many more people to chat over with this amazing destination," Norse founder and CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen said in a statement when the fresh flight changed into announced in April.

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