Latest Mango Airlines flight news

Mango vs Kulula
Mango flight specials

24 May 2013

Mango started charter flights to Zanzibar in March 2013, and have now applied for the right to launch 3 weekly regular scheduled flights from Joburg to both Kilimanjaro & Zanzibar.

10 - 11 May 2013

Mango Airlines is at the Swartkops Air Show hosting an aviation career day.

8 Apr 2013

Mango Airlines is voted one of the top 20 most colourful airlines in the world, by Skift.

19 Mar 2013

Mango Airlines launches a flight quotations reservations application for the Blackberry 10. “Innovation lies at the core of our busines. Our mandate of accessibility of air travel compels Mango to continue seeking pioneering distribution channels and payment methodologies. We were the first South African airline to offer retail flight bookings through supermarkets Shoprite and Checkers, so extending our network across mobile platforms further enables doing business, no matter where or when...Embracing mobile technology turns every smartphone into a shop window, a possible penetration of likely 1-2 million new consumers.” says Mango's spokesman, Hein Kaiser

Mar 2013

Mango launches weekly charter flights from Johannesburg to Zanzibar, offered through Africastay.

7 Mar 2013

We have some suggestions for recipes for Mango Airlines to use, with Mango in them, and serve up on their flights!

31 Jan 2013

Mango launches an application for Apple iPhone & iPads which can be used to book & pay for flights, as well as receive information on flight specials. Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive of Mango Airlines says that: “In line with our strategy to make air travel more accessible to South Africans, we have added mobile platforms to our already extensive distribution channel bouquet.”

15 Jan 2013

Rumours are swirling about the Mango is about to announce the launch of flights from Johannesburg to Zanzibar. 1time airline used to fly the route before it went into liquidation.

5 Dec 2012

Mango flights to Port Elizabeth are launched, with daily flights from both Cape Town and Johannesburg. Mr Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive Officer of Mango Airlines said that “There is a requirement for a low cost carrier on the Johannesburg - Port Elizabeth and Cape Town - Port Elizabeth route and with the recent exit of capacity Mango has brought forward its plans by a few months in order to accommodate market demand. Mango managed to hire most of the Port Elizabeth staff who were recently retrenched by 1time airline.

6 Nov 2012

Part of a statement by Minister of Transport Malusi Gigaba, on Mango Airways' financials: "I have elected to make Mango's current, calendar-year-to-date cash flow statement (movement) available, intentionally covering SAA 's fiscal year-end. Reflected in this statement, interested parties will read that Mango is in cash positive, neutral movement position, ergo, that the airline is a model of stability within a sector plagued by continuous economic challenges in a contracting market. Salient points include:

• There have been no changes to the entity 's Share capital during the period under review nor have there been any changes in this regard since the entity settled its Shareholders loan in 2007, as clearly reported in the published annual reports of South African Airways at a Group level for every year subsequent. What should be clear from this is that Mango did not benefit from any capitalisation or guarantee issued in favour of its parent company, SAA, and in this regard there could not have been a market-distorting effect as insinuated;

• Within a business dominated by cash flow and a local Industry characterised by losses during recent times regardless of nature of ownership or geographic location, including interim losses reported by Comair itself, Mango maintained a cash-neutral position during the review period. Whilst, generally speaking, cash flow cycles are cyclical, Mango has been substantially cash-positive since inception and no expectations exist that the entity would require any form of related Shareholder assistance in the years to come.

Mango SOC (LTD) Condensed Cashflow Statement for the 9-month ending September 2012

Additionally, other pertinent performance indicators applicable to Mango's current financial year include:

• Unit revenue (RASK) growth of 28.2%, with working capital changes positively affected by robus growth in passenger forward sales.
• Passenger load factors maintained at above 80% (exceeding the Domestic Market average by an average of 3 percentage points);
  
• Aircraft asset utilisation, at 9.1 hours per day, and people productivity between 3,400 and 3,600 passengers per employee per annum, substantially leading the Domestic Industry;
  
• Asset efficiency, expressed as number-of-passenger-per-aircraft-per-year, of between 300,000 and 400,000 passengers/aircraft, ranking amongst the best globally.

The fundamentals of Low Cost aviation, namely scale growth, positive cash generation and high asset utilisation and productivity reflect strongly within Mango an entity that operates under a strict governance framework and structure that includes the Company being subject to accepted Accounting (with a major auditing firm as external auditors and, incidentally, Mango 's internal audit function being performed by the same audit Group that is responsible for Comair 's external audit function), Safety (inter-alia as applied through the Civil Aviation Authority) and Regulatory (inter-alia Competition regulations) prescripts. These attributes, intrinsic to Mango as a stand-alone company, contributes to financial sustainability of the entity, even in tough economic times characterised by increasing cost, declining demand and increased price-sensitivity. In this regard Mango, subsequent to a loss realised in its maiden full fiscal (which, contrary to competitor rhetoric, was fully disclosed in the SAA Group 's financial statements for the year ending March 2008 refer www.flysaa.com), has maintained bottom-line profitability through the challenges posed by record fuel prices in 2008 (break-even FY2008), depressed demand associated with the Global Economic Crisis of 2009 (R10.9m profit) a stable year in 2010 (R13.7m profit) and a challenging 2011 (R300k profit). With the combination of high fuel cost, increases in regulatory charges, suppressed demand and excess supply (following the further entry of Velvet Sky in 2011) fully accounted for and reflected in Mango's FY2012 loss (amounting to approximately R58 per passenger, or roughly equivalent to the increases in regulatory charges), the Company is again on track to return a profit for the current fiscal. The assertion that Mango has realised excessive losses since its inception is accordingly factually incorrect.

Turning to other matters of unsubstantiated allegations:

Cross-subsidisation of services Mango receives three types of major services from its parent Company, SAA:

1. Central Treasury services, to the extent that surplus, non-operational cash gets consolidated for purposes of Group application and optimisation a common and logical practice within a Group context. In this regard Mango receives an effective interest rate on positive cash balances of Prime less 3.3 basis points, a rate lower than that obtainable through commercial banks and accordingly a competitive impediment at Mango level;
2. Aircraft maintenance services from SAA Technical, in the same vein as services provided to Comair brands BA and Kulula. The effective rate applicable to this service, on a like-for-like aircraft type, is marginally higher for Mango than for Comair a matter that transpired due to normal free-market functioning and a desire on the part of SAA Technical to grow its customer base;
3. Aircraft sub-leases, representing a transfer of existing SAA Group aircraft at the end of their lease terms to Mango at rates directly negotiated by Mango. In this regard it is prudent to point out that a State-owned Company such as Mango, whilst conceivably benefiting from a lower cost of capital due to the nature of its ownership, conversely is penalised by the unintended financial effect of the National Industrial Participation Program (NIPP), resulting in the company paying a marginally higher rate for capital assets such as aircraft than private enterprise competitors who are not subject to NIPP obligations.
   
   The above represents the full extent of material intra-Company services between Mango and its parent company, with matters such as fuel procurement being a function of independently negotiated contracts directly between Mango and its fuel suppliers. The above are matters of fact, which can only be evidenced by contractual review, noting that not even a publically listed entity such as Comair discloses aircraft maintenance rates in its own financial statements (whether in aggregate at a Group level or at a separate Brand level).
   
   In this regard it is further worth pointing out that the supply arrangement between SAA and Mango has been reviewed by the Competition Commission prior to the inception of the entity a fact known but conveniently suppressed by Mango 's competitors.

"

2 Oct 2012

All 6 of Mango's planes have now been fitted with WiFi, and they're celebrating by offering connectivity on flights at R2-for-a-week’s access and R1-for-a-day pass during October 2012.

Carel van der Merwe, Chief Executive Officer of G-Connect, said that “The service has seen a 98% up-time throughout, with usage, we anticipate, growing to a 12% uptake following the completion of fleet roll-out. Interestingly we have seen the majority of use focused on sending and receiving email, showing that the potential for upping productivity during a two-hour flight has become an important business tool. We expect email traffic to increase by 60% over the next couple of months with social media posts likely growing in tandem with general usage increases. We expect the same trend as in other parts of the world where 50% of business travellers take Wi-Fi-enabled flights to be ‘reachable’ during business hours.”

“Since our launch, we have set ourselves a target of a ground-breaking innovation every year; from being the first airline on social media through to innovative payment methods such as accepting store charge cards (Edcon) and retailing flights through Shoprite and Checkers, our mobi-site and G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi. Mango is forging ahead at pace and it has delivered substantially to the growth of the business.” said Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive of Mango Airlines.

20 Sep 2012

Mango Airlines announces plans to become the first African airline to have a significant measure of carbon neutrality (within 10 years). "Airlines burn fuel, and contribute approximately 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is an immovable fact and as a sector that drives economic growth across markets, ergo sustainability within the industry and assuming a leadership position becomes key. Despite the fact that on-going economic pressures in aviation may be cause for losing focus, Mango has elected to formally commit itself to sustainability and recognising its responsibility toward managing and mitigating its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means that we will commence measurement of our GHG emissions directly and indirectly related to our primary business activity, air transportation. its. “Once we have a baseline our mitigation strategy will be aligned to Mango’s current starting-block initiatives such as the construction of sustainable vegetable gardens in communities, recycling and operational efficiencies. Our aim is sustainable development that will, where possible, further align with national developmental goals and include added benefits of job creation and skills development among others." said Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive Officer of Mango Airlines.

20 Sep 2012

Mango releases an application for cellphone & tablet online reservations.

25 Aug 2012

Mango extends free Twitter & Facebook on all Wi-Fi enabled flights until 30 Sep 2012.

20 Aug 2012

CEO of Mango Airlines, Nico Bezuidenhout, on their social media strategy:

Mango Airlines CEO Nico Bezuidenhout attributes 50% rise in revenues to social media

"Interviewer: So Nico, welcome back to Simpliflying. It's been a year since you were featured on our blog talking all about Mango's innovative marketing. How has it gone in the last year, and where is Mango now?

Nico: Thank you. It's been a great year, we've been focusing a lot more to the social media for the core mechanism we call the core component of our marketing campaign, and a means of reaching our market. So much to the extent that in the last six months we pretty have limited our price-based commercials to our Facebook base for example, to the social media environment. And the effect of that has been, well a 50 percent increase year on year for the last two years running so, whilst I can't say it's totally and only the fact of social media usage, it's definitely a large component has been social media.

Interviewer: So, you've never not done any above the line price point campaigns at all?

Nico: Yes, traditionally we've always focused on, because we try to reach all spheres of the market including the guys who do not necessary have access to the online environment. When Mango was launched we focused on the traditional means of marketing and in the last year or so we've been focusing more on the online space and it's definitely borne fruit.

Interviewer: And you still see tracks in how many fans you have now.

Nico: Our fan base has probably, it's up to about thirteen or fourteen thousand, but the issue is not about the actual number it's about the engagement so we just had our level of engagement compared to other local airlines in South Africa, and we've got 6.7 times the level of engagement of Facebook users than any of the other airlines and I think about 4.2 times the global average of engagement so, it's all about the extent and quality of engagement as opposed to the quantity of followers.

Interviewer: So, you certainly seem to be achieving good results. Have you invested a lot of resources into the team, or the agency or the tools?

Nico: Well, I think that, firstly we made the value composition clear. We supported our social media drive with a "Bucket List" campaign that we are currently in progress with. The concept of the "Bucket List" campaign is just really Mango selected sixteen types of things that you can do, or sorry twelve I mean, and the consumer must choose one of these twelve things. It includes things such as for example, going down to Cape Town to go shark cage diving, or go for a picnic on Table Mountain, or go and have a beer at the Mystic Boer in Bloemfontein. It's all about living your dreams, going that extra mile and using social media in that way to support our launch of our new brand tagline "why not today". And it's been very effective in that regard. From a resourcing standpoint, but there's two trains of thought, um, some companies go down the process that social media administration is a closed user group of people who are specifically trained up to do that. Mango has chosen to follow a process that social media is everyone's responsibility in the organisation. So, don't be surprised when you find one of our cabin crew members onboard an aircraft with an IPad or a Galaxy Tab, busy tweeting, and representing our company right there, on the fly, which is obviously a component due to the fact that we became the first airline to launch onboard internet access in South Africa."

And on in-flight wifi:

Mango Airlines CEO Nico Bezuidenhout reveals in-flight wi-fi success factors in interview

Interviewer: You did become the first airline in Africa to have onboard WIFI. How many planes does it, and how long has it been?
Nico: We launched it, ah, the first aircraft was equipped on the 8th of May and we will have the final aircraft equipped by the end of September, so we've had a good level of uptake. The initial phase on two hour sector flights anything up to a ten to fifteen percent uptake we're very, very happy about. Obviously it's a shorter, different level uptake on shorter sectors. But, I think our uptake has all got to do with the affordability of the product packaging and the offering. At R50 for a three hour flight pass in terms of WIFI, that is then transferrable and you can use it in the airport environment, and when you get to your hotel, it's transferrable into your hotel environment. It's an end to end WIFI package, on the ground, in the air, at rates lower than what you can find on the ground, and that of course has helped.
Interviewer: So that means people are being incentivised to buy it in flight, so that you can actually use it in the hotel.
Nico: Yes, so it provides you with a complete end to end coverage. You know, like our airline seats, any of our ancillary offerings must have value in order to be valuable to the consumers. Now, it's not only value in the hands of the consumer it's also value in the hands of the airline. For us, WIFI is as much an external value proposition as it is a means for us to enhance our internal business processes. As a case in point, when you sell crisps on our onboard meals for example, and you're selling out of a particular flavour, it helps to have that real-time communication that the WIFI enables, so that there's a new trolley waiting when the aircraft lands so you can restock your goods. So there's a benefit both in terms of in the hands of the consumer and it's internal to the hands of the organisation. And, also, we're very excited about the second phase of this, where you're gonna see more ancillary revenue components tied to our WIFI. We will be launching two streaming, live streaming TV channels onboard our aircraft as well as an onboard media server, which effectively means that you as a consumer can download on any device that you've got that's WIFI enabled, the latest movie onboard our aircraft at a normal fare.
Interviewer: That's fantastic. Now, who's powering this? What partnerships have you got? In place?
Nico: This is a joint venture partnership between ourselves, Vodacom and a company called Wireless G, with the underlying technology being that of Row 44 in North America.
Interviewer: Right. Now, is this a revenue initiator for you, for ancillary revenue side or is it more of a customer service and customer experience initiative for you?
Nico: It is ultimately a bit of a mixture of both, the real key point being that it's a differentiating factor. There's no other airline in Africa that has got this service available, and it provides us a unique selling proposition to for example the business market that continues to stay in touch on a two hour flight from Joburg to Cape Town. We are the only airline that allows you to stay in touch with your business or the social space on your loved ones whilst onboard our aircraft.
Interviewer: Right. And this will be a hundred percent fleet rollout by September?
Nico: By September, yes.
Interviewer: That's fantastic. Have there been any customer issues? Because in the US for example Delta domestic, you keep hearing bandwidth issues sometimes people have drop sessions, you know, is that an issue here?
Nico: We haven't had that as an issue, the system uptime has been upwards of ninety eight percent and even thee two percent that's counted as down time is really intermittent system drops of one second, two seconds, three seconds. I think some of the reasons why we have not had service issues relates to the fact that we chose to partner with a telecoms provider and specialist in the form of Vodacom that has really helped. I think that in general very satisfactory feedback from consumers. Also, the provisioning is done on the basis that we should comfortably handle a hundred concurrent and simultaneous connections onboard our aircraft. Now, for a hundred concurrent users it implies that we've had an uptake of in excess of fifty percent, which in all truths I've not heard of.
Interviewer: Right, right. Certainly, that's something that not even free WIFI is experiencing right now on airlines. Where do you see this going in the next twelve months, both from WIFI and a social media perspective, do you see real time customer service coming in or you know, real time ancillary services you might be pushing through this?
Nico: Yes, definitely. I think that, you know, if you start combining certain things, an aircraft en route to a certain destination that has got connectivity allows you a real time feed of say destination information, destination weather services, destination taxi services and the like, so you can really broaden the revenue net by having this WIFI connectivity, but then more importantly, it also becomes a proactive service recovery component . Hypothetically you have a situation where a consumers bag was misloaded on take off. Our team would find out about that just before the aircraft is about to take off. Communication messaging could be sent through to the user, real time, onboard the aircraft, to advance notice the user that your baggage will not be on the baggage belt when you get there, it is gonna be with person x y or z. So, from a practice of service recovery standpoint it's of full value too.
Interviewer: Right. It certainly stands for customer satisfaction there. Ah, is free WIFI something you might be valued in the future?
Nico: We will in future, if we find that it serves sufficient value generator or revenue generator in terms of additional sales, yes we would consider. Obviously, the downside concern would be your compromise in ancillary revenue and as you know margins from seat sales are very low, so I'd be hesitant to forsake high margins on ancillary sales.
Interviewer: Yeah, well good luck leveraging this wall garden effect onboard Mango planes, I wish to fly and hopefully experience this myself soon and meanwhile thanks again for joining us and all the best.

Nico: Thanks very much.

3rd quarter 2012

In partnership with a bank, Mango plans to allow air tickets to be printed from ATMs.

August 2012

Mango Airlines offers a 50% discount on its WiFi facilities on the Cape Town - Johannesburg flight route, and also offers Facebook & Twitter for free (bar video uploads). Nico Bezuidenhout, the Chief Executive of Mango Airlines said that “Uptake of in-flight Wi-Fi has been phenomenal. Approximately 8% of all Guests on enabled aircraft are online during flight at this time. This is in line with global usage benchmarks. Discounting usage as we approach the end of the beta phase as well as opening up social media at no cost should drive increased adoption of the service.”

27 Jul 2012

Mango's 6th new-generation B737-800 aircraft arrives (it is the 5th to be enabled with the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi service). Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive Officer of Mango Airlines say that: "Mango has made significant market share gains over the past 12 months, with overall market-share growing to just under 20% on routes that we operate from 15% in early 2011. In today’s challenging market it is essential to cast one’s net as wide as possible, and to seek creative operational solutions and innovation on an on-going basis." Referring to G-Connect, Bezuidenhout says "Imagine flying to Cape Town where a two hour journey is suddenly a seamless cog in one’s schedule, where the potential of productivity and the promise of entertainment will shorten a journey to the click of a mouse."

22 Jul 2012

Mango G-connect plane spotted at Lanseria Airport.

19 Jul 2012

Mango Airlines quits flying the Johannesburg - Bloemfontein route. Mango's Chief Executive, Nico Bezuidenhout, says that "The success of Bloemfontein-Cape Town highlights the incredible opportunity that low-cost carriers offer to under-serviced routes. Mango’s Bloemfontein operation has seen significant investment over the past three years with the introduction of a ground-handling facility as well as optimised scheduling. While we are suspending flights on the over-traded Johannesburg-Bloemfontein route on July 19, our commitment to and investment in Bloemfontein remain unchanged."

June 2012

Mango plans to make a decision about starting flying to Mauritius.

8 May 2012

Mango Airlines' and South Africa's first flight with WiFi, takes off from Lanseria Airport. Sadly, 115 people connected with multiple devices & a burning desire to test the system proved too much, and only about a third of the passengers managed to connect. YouTube, adult content sites & peer-to-peer downloads are not allowed.

Vodacom is partnering with WirelessG to provide the service. The initial charge is R50 rand for uncapped access for the flight (or a one day pass, valid for 20 hours, for R90), or R1 per minute. The system uses satellite-based connectivity to offer speeds of up to 4Mbps.

"In a highly competitive market where everything tastes like chicken, it's important to taste like beef. Innovation is a cornerstone of our business along with sustained affordable fares that are relative to the prevailing market." said Mr Nico Bezuidenhout, Chief Executive of Mango Airlines.

2012

In 2012, Mango Airlines will become the first South African airline to offer wifi internet on its flights. The announcement came after approval was granted in October 2011 by the South African Civil Aviation Authority.

“In a digital world, being online makes a significant difference in terms of business and social connectivity. In an increasingly time-poor world, imagine the productivity potential of in-flight connectivity, socially connecting through Facebook or Twitter en route to Cape Town or, for that matter, surfing the net.” said Mango Airline's Communications Officer, Hein Kaizer.

Pricing hasn't been revealed yet “The idea is not to charge per megabyte but rather provide uncapped access for the duration of the flight on a fixed-fee basis and to make it on a par with international trends in terms of in-flight as well.” said the Executive Marketing for Wireless G, Elize Ferero.

1 Apr 2012

Gareth Cliff, a 5FM DJ, ticks off Maropeng as part of the Mango Bucket List competition:

1 Mar 2012

Passenger can now print their boarding passes for Mango flights, at home. Baggage drop-off points for Mango passengers will be clearly indicated at airports.

29 Feb 2012

Book & fly Mango Plus before 29 Feb 2012, and win a 20% discount off your next Mango Plus flight.

5 Feb 2012

All telephonic & online credit card bookings now require the physical card or a copy thereof as well as a copy of the cardholder's ID document to be presented at check-in.

1 Feb 2012

Mango Airlines happy hour - R325 between JNB & DUR, JNB & Bloemfontein

27 Jan 2012

Buy a Mango voucher for R50 & get R200 of selected flights

27 Oct 2011

Press release from Solidarity: "Trade union Solidarity today warned that if airline company Mango does not set about the wage negotiations at the company in earnest immediately, it will bring the airline’s flights to a halt. The trade union and the company crossed swords again today during a conciliation meeting at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in Benoni. Solidarity was issued a strike certificate following the meeting.

According to Ilze Nieuwoudt, Solidarity spokesperson, wage negotiations with Mango have not gained momentum since August, after the company had initially indicated to the trade union that it was not prepared to listen to any wage demands. Solidarity subsequently declared a dispute with Mango and referred it to the CCMA to force the company into negotiations. “Mango initially undertook to implement an interim wage increase of 5,6% until a wage agreement was reached, at which time the difference would be implemented retroactively up to the agreed increase. However, this offer was withdrawn unilaterally earlier this week, which was the last straw for Solidarity’s members at the company,” explained Nieuwoudt.

Nieuwoudt said that Solidarity had signed a recognition agreement with Mango in 2010, giving the trade union bargaining power to negotiate on its members’ behalf for, among other things, wage increases. Solidarity represents the vast majority of Mango’s pilots.

“Mango employees are tired of waiting for the company to deal with issues that have been outstanding for months. Apart from the wage negotiations that are being delayed by Mango, a dispute regarding the employees’ contracts has been dragging on since March,” said Nieuwoudt. “All Mango employees work on a contractual basis and therefore do not receive medical and pension benefits. Mango employees are therefore not remunerated on nearly the same level as employees elsewhere in the industry.”

Solidarity will approach its members for a mandate for a possible strike. The trade union has warned that passengers and booking agents should bear the possibility of a strike by pilots in mind when booking flights for November and December. “Solidarity is, however, still set on reaching a wage agreement and will again meet with the employer on Wednesday, 2 November in order to seek a resolution to the dispute.”"

14 Oct 2011

Mango Airlines temporarily dissalows 3rd party bookings with Edcon (Jet & Edgars) cards, where the cardholders are not on the flight: “Due to recent irregular activity around this payment method we have had to introduce stricter procedures, temporarily. While this may present an inconvenience at this time, I believe that our prudent approach will serve to better protect our Guests." says Mr Nico Bezuidenhout, Mango Chief Executive Officer

7 Sep 2011

Mango Airlines sets up a veggie garden:

2 Jul 2011

For the 3rd year in a row, Mango is the official airline of the Vodacom Durban July. The first race of the day is the Mango MR 82 Handicap (sounds a bit close to 1time's MD82 aircraft). Mango high flyer scouts photographed trend setting couples, some of whom won prizes.

1 Jun 2011

From 1 June 2011, Mango Airlines is operating 3 weekly flights between Cape Town and Lanseria Airport. Mango Airlines' Chief Executive Officer, Nico Bezuidenhout said that Lanseria is the second route launch for Mango in the past year, (JNB-Bloemfontein eas the other). Growth is a priority on our agenda following a successful post-launch period. Demand has significantly increased across all routes and the introduction of a second presence in Gauteng will further strengthen Mango's value proposition. We continue to offer the widest distribution and payment method network to our Guests, and operations from Lanseria will further cement Mango's commitment to its mandate of making air travel more accessible and affordable to South Africans.

Departing from Lanseria for Cape Town at:

05:55
11:55
17:50

Departing from Cape Town for Lanseria at:

08:35
15:05
20:40

Saturdays departing from Lanseria for Cape Town at:
06:30
13:15

Saturdays departing from Cape Town for Lanseria at:
09:30
16:15

Sundays departing from Lanseria for Cape Town at:
06:30
12:10
17:50

Sundays departing from Cape Town for Lanseria at:

09:20
14:50
20:40

25 Nov 2010

First Car Rental & Mango run a competition to win Mango flights or car rentals or or 3 nights accommodation for 2 at Hotel 64 on Gordon in Durban.

10 Sep 2010

Mango Airlines sponsors the Soweto Wine Festival (other sponsors were City Press, DSTV, San Parks, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Pick 'n Pay, Samsung & Vodacom).

3 Sep 2010

Cheapest daily flight prices for Mango Airlines in October (Mango fever), including R288 flights from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein & Durban.

2010

Mango aims to become the first South African airline to offer in-flight internet connectivity later in 2010, subject to Civil Aviation Authority approval processes. Mango has extended its association with G-Connect to include the in-flight service, which it says will cost less than R1 per megabyte.

Mango's focus this year is not only on enhancing service delivery to our Guests, says CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, but in the continual exploration of innovation and ancillary revenue opportunities. The launch of web-connectivity on board our aircraft not only underpins Mango's business objectives but allows travellers, in particular our business Guests, to leverage a priceless commodity time. Bezuidenhout says that Mango 's Internet service will be operational across its fleet of new generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Mango will follow a similar rollout process as America 's low cost Southwest airline.

Carel van der Merwe, CEO of WirelessG says: G-Connect strives to be an innovative product within the telecoms space, but with our first in-flight partnership with Mango, we are able to take this one step further and provide a low cost Internet service for local flyers as well. There are no sign-up costs to get a G-Connect account and no contract tie-ins, which makes this a viable option for all Mango Guests. Your G-Connect account then allows you stay connected through a shared wallet on the ground, or in-flight Wi-Fi in the air, paying only for the services use."

The satellite based technology will deliver high speed Internet at altitude. In fact, the cost of data transfer is more affordable than many bandwidth offerings on the ground, says Bezuidenhout. Several airlines, including cost Southwest, have made connectivity at altitude available globally with great success. Bezuidenhout adds though that Mango 's service will be moderated to exclude access to potentially offensive web content. In order to ensure the comfort of all our Guests on board, content that should be accessed in privacy will not be available.

Subash Devkaran, Senior Manager: Aircraft Certification Division of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) adds: "The application for and availability of wireless Internet on board commercial airliners is welcomed by the CAA. We do believe installation of this system would facilitate business efficiency in South Africa, thereby contributing to enhanced economic growth in the country."

12 Apr 2010

Mango Airlines start operating Johannesburg - Bloemfontein flights, with a price of R545.

3 Oct 2009

Mango launches the Mango Air Race competition.

4 Jun 2009

Mango Airlines announces a partnership with UNICEF, whereby airlines guests on the website will be provided the opportunity to donate to various initiatives (related to UNICEF's work in youth development through sport initiatives).

20 Apr 2009

Dec 2008

Mango run a special whereby a boarding pass purchased during December allows you to buy 2 Nu Metro tickets for the price of one (during selected hours).

1 Dec 2008

Mango TV, in-flight entertainment, is launched.

25 Oct 2008

To celebrate their birthday, Mango offer 20,000 tickets for half price.

13 Oct 2008

Mango are perhaps not as fresh as they like (they've been advertising themselves as being "South Africa's freshest low cost carrier"), as they offer specials which must be booked by the 12th October, on the 13th October.

1 Aug 2008

Mango announce that for the month of August they will be offering 10% discounts to passengers who carry less than 15kg of luggage (for their next flight).

1 Aug 2008

FNB customers can purchase Mango flights through their mobile phones.

22 Jun 2008

Mango, Sixt & Tempest Car Hire team up and run a stall at Canal Walk in Cape Town.

22 Apr 2008

Mango introduces a new payment method - via POLi, internet banking and debit cards - which allows secure transactional banking online. To make use of this you must have first subscribed to online banking at your bank.

22 Mar 2008

The 2145pm Mango Airlines flight from Durban to Cape Town is cancelled at the last moment, as the pilot would otherwise exceeded his maximum allowed hours for the days. A woman who had trained for months for the Two Oceans Marathan was in tears as she knew she wouldn't make it in time for the race the next morning. One angry man kicked and smashed the door leading to the apron, resulting in riot police with sub-machine guns arriving on the scene.

21 Mar 2008

Mango Airlines run a special with Shoprite Checkers - cheaper flights for those who book in via the money market counters at Shoprite or Checkers stores. At the same time Mango runs a competition to win free Mango flights, Tempest Car Hire car rentals and accommodation with Southern Sun.

29 Feb 2008

A Mango flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg had to turn back to Cape Town International Airport, after a flight system warning alerted the crew of a technical problem.

4 Jan 2008

Mango wins the SouthAfrica.TO 2007 award for cheapest flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and cheapest flight from Durban to Cape Town.

1 Jan 2008

Mango Airlines give away 2 return tickets in a New Years day competition.

What South Africans want from Father Mango for Christmas

Online backlash against Mango Airlines

26 Nov 2007

Mango Airlines tickets are made available at Checkers and Shoprite stores in South Africa, resulting in the Shoprite Group being the first retailer in South Africa to sell airline tickets (they had previously been selling bus tickets).

14 Nov 2007

Mango offers 5000 one-way flights for R169 all inclusive, the same price as they offered flights for when they started a year before (but all flights had to be booked as part of a return voyage).

Sep 2007

Mango Plus is introduced

21 Sep 2007

Mango airlines advertises flights for R90

Jun 2007

Mango Airlines, like other South African carriers, have been criticised for not leveraging its sales with affiliate marketing (like Air France flights, British Airways flights, Emirates flights, KLM flights, Virgin Atlantic flights, Lufthansa, etc...). In June 2007 Mango Airlines adsense adverts were spotted on the web (it's not clear when it started this online advertising strategy).

14 May 2007

The Southern Sun group sent an email to its frequent guest list entitled "It takes two to Mango", advertising "Mango's Winter Warmer Special, with flights from as low as R222* one way". Well done to Mango Airlines for notching up a partnership with a large South African accommodation group.

May 2007

Mango Airlines website grinds to a halt when it offers R1 tickets excluding taxes (including on flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg).

Dec 2006

It takes a while for Mango to rank on the term "Mango Airlines", contributing to the phrase "Mango Airlines" being in the top 10 searched for terms in South Africa.

15 Nov 2006

Mango airlines' first flight ever, from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport to Cape Town International Airport. Just before 0600, flight JE 123, the first Mango airlines flight taxied down the OR Tambo's runway and took off for Cape Town.

Nov 2006

Mango's initial sales price for Johannesburg-Durban and Johannesburg-Cape Town tickets is R169, half that of competitor airlines. In response, Kulula lowers its fare price to R168 and 1time to R165 for a limited number of seats. Mango Airlines' website is initially swamped by online traffic and grinds to a halt.

Nov 2006

In a preemptive attempt to limit the impact of an online backlash from consumers, Mango registered domain names like neverflymango.com, mangosucks.com, vrotmango.com, rottenmango.com, neverfly-mango.com, mango-sucks.com, vrot-mango.com and rotten-mango.com.

Mango Airlines' holding company, South African Airways (SAA), was bleeding business to the other low-cost airlines (Kulula.com & 1time airline) and therefore decided to set up its own low-cost carrier. South African Airways initially code-named Mango Airlines TULCA - an acronym for "The Ultimate Low Cost Airline ".