South Africa Travel Online logo
plane flying in to land at an airport

SAA Paint the Plane competition

Holiday in India


flight deals

Kulula news & offers

Kulula vs 1time vs Mango
Kulula flight specials

To get the latest Kulula news and offers delivered to your email address, subscribe to our flight news list (other travel news also included, not just restricted to Kulula Airlines).

1 Apr 2012

In what is becoming annual bit of Kulula fun, it is announced on April Fools Day that Kulula water landings will be taking place at the Hartbeespoort Dam in order to keep costs down.

Feb 2012

For R26/traveller/flight you can now purchase Kulula travel insurance, which covers:

  • Flight cancellation (in the event of medical or other specified conditions) up to the total original flight cost

  • Baggage up to R10 000 (plus valuables up to R2 500)

  • Baggage delay R500 per 3hr delay up to R3 000

  • Flight delay R500 per 3 hour delay

  • Personal accident R25 000

11 Jan 2012

Kulula's inflight magazine, Khuluma, will from now on be published by Picasso Headline (part of the Avusa Media Group). Previously it was published by Pixelink24, which is part of Media24.

16 Dec 2011

The first ever flash mob on a Kulula flight, as dances promoting 8ta (a Telkom cellphone subsidiary) get out of their seats and dance in the aisles.  The Marketing Executive of 8.ta., Stephen Blewett, said that “We’ve decided to engage with the public in this manner to highlight the fact that December is playtime for South Africans as we all embark on our holidays, mostly to various coastal destinations. Having fun is part and parcel of the 8.ta brand and we are celebrating summer.”

Nov 2011

Kulula changes its baggage allowance policy to a piece system, where only 1 piece of luggage weighing up to 20kg is allowed to be checked in, for one person. Anything above that is charged for.

29 Jun 2011

Kulula launches Daddy's Deals to its jetsetters, an newsletter which will provide discount offers to subscribers (such as restaurant & spa discounts, the type of thing which Zappon & Groupon are running with).

27 Mar 2011

Comair changes from using Kulula branded aircraft to British Airways branded aircraft on the Durban - Port Elizabeth - Cape Town flight route.

Comair Limited's Executive Manager for Group Marketing, said Heidi Brauer, said: “We are experiencing demand for premium travel options to coastal destinations, mostly from the increased number of business travellers on these routes. British Airways will therefore be taking over the servicing of these routes from low fare carrier kulula.com from 27 March 2011, offering travellers the full service Club (business class) experience as well as Executive Club benefits. Furthermore, the current BA flight configuration and aircraft types are better suited for these routes, further enhancing operational efficiency.”

27 Feb 2011

Kulula pilot, Captain Margaret Viljoen, was temporarily blinded by a laser pointed from the ground, whilst landing flight MN455 from Cape Town at Lanseria Airport, and had to look away from the ground and rely on instruments to land the aircraft.

13 Feb 2011

Kulula.com offer cows for Kate and William for lobola.

Jan 2011

Comair announces that they have secured rights to operate flights to Maputo with 420 seats per week. Comair plans to start services from Johannesburg's Lanseria Airport in the first half of 2011, using both the Kulula and British Airways brands.

19 Dec 2010

Closing date of the Kulula Sky Poster competition on Facebook.

10 Sep 2010

Cheapest daily prices for Kulula Airline in November 2010, R299 for Cape Town to Port Elizabeth or Durban to Port Elizabeth flights.

21 Jun 2010

Sepp, a Boston Terrier, receives free flights around South Africa on Kulula planes, following an offer to fly the Fifa President (the dog's owners said the offer didn't specify which Sepp the ad referred to, so they changed their dog's name to Sepp).

8 Apr 2010

Satish Makan has his complaint upheld by the ASA Directorate, that Kulula's adverts do not state that the prices are for 1-way trips.

Jun 2009

Kulula get into the spirit of the Confederations Cup football, by painting the nose-cones of their planes to resemble footballs.

21 May 2009

Flight Centre outlets stop selling Kulula flights, after they could not agree a suitable remuneration model with Kulula.

May 2009

Heidi Brauer is appointed executive manager of group marketing for Kulula. She was previously deputy CEO of Markinor.

6 May 2009

Kulula reduces its free checked luggage allowance from 23kg to 20kg.

8 Apr 2009

Kulula introduces a fee of R50 per trip for infants and allows 1 free checked bag weighing up to 10kg plus a collapsible pushchair and a child car seat, tickets purchased for infants prior to 08 April 2009 were not subject to this fee and also not entitled to 10kg free baggage allowance.

28 Oct 2008

Kulula increase the frequency of their Johannesburg Lanseria - Cape Town (from 1 to 5 on Sundays, from 3 to 6 on weekdays) and Johannesburg Lanseria - Durban (to 2 daily, except Saturdays) flights. At the same time Johannesburg Lanseria - Port Elizabeth flights are being scrapped.

2 Oct 2008

Kulula Connect launches an online shop (powered by Altech Autopage Cellular) where you can browse, build and buy a cellphone package with any of Cell C, Vodacom or MTN.

2 Sep 2008

Kulula redesigns its website, seperating it into Kulula Air, Kulula Travel, Kulula Connect & Kulula Card.

27 Aug 2008

Kulula launches 3 sub brands - Kulula Air (flight, car, hotel and taxi bookings), Kulula Travel (online travel site for booking package holidays) & Kulula Connect (cellular and data packages).

13 Aug 2008

A Kulula Boeing 737-400 on route from George to Johannesburg runs into pressurisation problems when hitting cruising altitude. Oxygen masks drop as the plane descends and returns to George.

22 Jul 2008

Kulula celebrates its 7th birthday by offering R147 in Kulula moolah to its credit car holders.

21 Jun 2008

Kulula announces that it will be offering Kauai's cuisine on board its flights.

21 Jun 2008

Kulula teams up with Netflorist to provide an email reminder service for anniversaries and birthdays (and to flog Netflorist flower arrangements).

2 Jun 2008

Security breach on a Kulula flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town, as rules are broken to allow a lady into the cockpit.

May 2008

Kulula establishes its Jetsetters club, a loyalty club whereby you can earn Kulula moolah for booking flights.

3 May 2008

A Kulula flight MN755 from Cape Town International Airport (on its way to Port Elizabeth) scrapes its tail on taking off and lands again at the airport (nobody hurt). Passengers are delayed for 12 hours in Cape Town whilst parts are flown down from Johannesburg.

17 Apr 2008

With the planting of a tree at Monde Primary School in Katlehong, Project Green is launched. Project Green is a partnership with Food and Trees for Africa aiming to plant grass and trees in developing areas which have deteriorated. When booking flights donations from R10 to R200 can be made towards the project.

Mar 2008

Kulula, initially included airport taxes in their flight prices, but then went through a bad patch when they decided to exclude airport taxes (ostensibly to showcase the high level of airport taxes but this ended up being confusing to customers, as one had to add in airport taxes to arrive at the final price). An advertisement which Kulula airline emailed out on the 9th July 2007 was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority as it did not state what the excluded airport taxes were. Then in March 2008 1time airline ran an advertisement which took a digg at airlines which didn't add in airport taxes, and simultaneously Kulula started including airport taxes in their flight prices.

11 Mar 2008

Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, announces a joint venture between Kulula and SA Tourism to put together low cost holidays in South Africa (focussing on Cape Town, Durban, George, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth). Kulula will put together affordable packages with small tour operators and Bed & Breakfasts.

1 Mar 2008

SouthAfrica.to picks up that Kulula have started including airport taxes in their flight prices again.

29 Feb 2008

Kulula's last scheduled flight in an MD82, all Boeing 737s from this point.

26 Feb 2008

Kulula announces its intention to launch Kulula Wealth, a joint venture with Liberty Life.

30 Jan 2008

Some 15 minutes after taking off, a bird flies into one of the engines of Kulula flight MN702 from Durban to Cape Town, forcing the pilot to shut down the engine and return to Durban Airport.

4 Jan 2008

Kulula.com wins the SouthAfrica.TO 2007 award for record cheapest flight on the Cape Town to Durban flight route, the Johannesburg to Cape Town flight route as well as the record cheapest flight in South Africa overall in 2007.

2007

In Skytrax's 2007 survey, Kulula airlines was voted the best low cost carrier in South Africa (and indeed, in Africa).

29 Oct 2007

Good news for Kulula Lanseria fans. The airline starts operating flights from Johannesburg's Lanseria airport to Port Elizabeth and Durban (as well as increasing the frequency of its flights from Lanseria to Cape Town to 3 per day).

July 2007

Kulula starts excluding airport taxes from their advertised flight prices (they indicate what the airport taxes will be at the bottom of the page). Subsequent to this, 1time airline starts advertising their flight prices as "unlike Kulula, these prices include airport taxes". In March 2008 Kulula start including airport taxes in the flight prices again.

Mar 2006

Kulula begins operating flights between Lanseria (Johannesburg) Airport and Cape Town International Airport.

2003

Flight routes are opened between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, as well as George and Johannesburg.

2001

The flight route between Durban and Johannesburg is opened.

Aug 2001

Operations commence with daily flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Jul 2001

Kulula Airlines is established, after Comair decided to start a low-cost airline

Kulula flying 101 aircraft