Kulula.com, which has had a monopoly of scheduled flights to Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs for five years, will face competition on the route from Cape Town in June when Mango, SAA’s low-cost division, launches three flights a day. Bookings are already being taken, with a special inaugural fare of R495 one way. Until now, Mango has had only four aircraft, leased from SAA, but it has now acquired a fifth and plans further expansion of its route network.
Rival low-cost airline 1Time also plans to fly between Cape Town and Lanseria – but not until the airport has been enlarged with more lounges and parking, as well as a second runway. Rodney James, its managing director, said it had decided this after realising that the airport, at its present size, would be uncomfortably crowded.
Flying from Lanseria, enabling passengers to avoid the traffic jams on routes to OR Tambo, has been a great advantage to kulula. But the opening of the high-speed Gautrain rail link to OR Tambo has changed that. Several people have told me they find it more convenient to take the train to the country’s largest airport than to drive to Lanseria and James tells me 1Time has had the same feedback.
Another factor, of course, is that although most Capetonians hate changing planes at OR Tambo on their way to some overseas destinations there is sometimes no alternative, particularly for people on business. SAA’s only overseas destination from here is London. Some airlines, including Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, withdraw from Cape Town in winter, while KLM reduces the number of flights. James assured me that 1Time would increase its flights to OR Tambo, not reduce them, when it introduces a service from here to Lanseria.
All airlines and aircraft manufacturers are trying to reduce pollution from planes, experimenting with different kinds of fuel made from algae to various plants. A plane powered entirely by electricity seemed unlikely – but there is one. The eGenius, a battery-powered plane that can seat two pilots, was on show at an international expo in Friedrichshaven, Germany, just before Easter. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus, which is the main sponsor of the project by the Institute of Aircraft Design at the University of Stuttgart, is looking into the long-term potential of electricity to power passenger flights.
The two-seater aircraft can already be bought for e70 000 and can fly for an hour at a cruising speed of up to 235km. But then the battery has to be recharged, in the same way as a cellphone, for 18 hours.
Christopher Emerson, Airbus’ senior vice-president for product strategy and market forecast, said the company was studying all available technologies for future aviation energy sources. It was supporting various research and technology projects in co-operation with universities and research organisations.
In addition to monitoring electric propulsion technology it was developing fuel cell technology as an alternative emission-free source of energy and was also using bio-fuel technology. But Nicolai Kresse of Airbus Future Prospects Office told me he believed it would be at least 40 years before a commercial passenger version of the electric plane could be used on short haul routes, although he conceded that a hybrid version might be possible.
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