Within the domestic aviation sector, customer service continues to be one of the biggest points of frustration for South Africans, specifically when it comes to airline punctuality - a sticking point in the last three months particularly, with some of South Africas low-cost airlines delaying as many as one in every three flights.
Irish airline Ryanair presents an interesting case study. In a recent customer satisfaction survey, 70% of respondents claimed they would never use the airline again, but despite this, the airline’s passengers have grown 80% in the past six years.
"Does this mean that as long as something is cheap, customers will continue to use it despite the service they receive? We’re not sure this is true for South Africa," asked Kirby Gordon, Head of Sales and Distribution at FlySafair.
"FlySafair focuses not only affordability but also on great customer service – core to this being punctuality. FlySafair scored an average on-time performance of 93.6% for 2018, which is streaks ahead of scores achieved by other South African airlines according to Statistics published last week by Airport Company South Africa," she said.
She said FlySafair had not been reliant on anyone else to maintain its aircraft.
"FlySafair has been in the maintenance game for decades. In fact, FlySafair’s maintenance company, Safair Operations, is one of just two primary organisations in South Africa capable of maintaining popular Boeing aircraft operated by domestic airlines.
"On-time performance is indisputably the most important factor when it comes to an airline’s customer satisfaction rating, with a correlation between these scores judged to be over 63%. What really sets FlySafair apart from the pack is the fact that the airline has shown that being affordable does not mean you have to sacrifice good customer service," she said.
The airline said in a statement that despite often being cheaper than other domestic airlines, FlySafair continued to invest in customer experience.
"Just because a service is cheap, doesn’t mean it has to be poor. In many cases, poor service delivery can only really continue if we allow it," she added.
See the infographic below:
