Velvet Sky Airline

30 Sep 2011

Velvet Sky begins flights between Johannesburg and Polokwane on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Sep 2011

Velvet Sky takes delivery of an additional 2 Boeing 737-300 aircraft, previously operated by Shenzhen Airlines in China, and were flown to South Africa via Sri-Lanka and the Seychelles. Before flying they are scheduled for a re-registration procedure, which involves extensive checks in conjunction with the SA Civil Aviation Authority and SAA Technical. There will also be an overhaul of the interior as well as a visit to the spray shop in order to convert them to the Velvet Sky livery. The procedure should be completed within a 5 week period. They will be offered in a 144 seat capacity configuration that will augment and increase the regularity of existing routes.

Aug 2011

Velvet Sky increases its frequency to 3 daily flights on the JNB-CPT flight route and the JNB-DUR flight route, as it takes delivery of 2 leased 737-300 planes. A DC9 is also being leased from Global Aviation from August 5.  "We want to focus on the SADC region. Studies show these are lucrative routes. Our initial routes will include Nairobi, Luanda, and Harare ." said Chairman Stephen Nthite

4 Jul 2011

Velvet Sky tickets can now be purchased at all Shoprite Money Market Counters and Computicket flights outlets.

Jul 2011

Macdonald Holdings, the majority owner of Velvet Sky airline, sells its stake to Excalibur Aerospace, with its Chairman, Cecil Reddy, saying: "Macdonald Holdings has identified international opportunities which it wishes to pursue in the short to medium-term. We place great emphasis on skills development and training; and we must deploy our hard-won expertise efficiently in order to grow our primary interests globally. We are selling our stake in Velvet Sky to Excalibur Aerospace who will no doubt continue to grow the business through their service-oriented approach, expansion plans into Africa and commitment to providing affordable air travel to South African commuters...It took us 2½ years to set up, it gave us trouble in the first few weeks but after we’ve nurtured it, it’ll be ready to play in the big league."

Excalibur Aerospace plans to add 3 planes to the Velvet Sky fleet in the next year. The Chairman of Excalibur Aerospace, Stephen Nthite (a lawyer by training), said: "We have key partners in the aviation industry that we plan to leverage off as we implement our aggressive expansion model. We are very excited about acquiring Velvet Sky as it fits in well with our plans to enter the aviation industry in the SADC region. Excalibur aims to expand the Velvet Sky fleet by three additional aircraft, to be introduced over the next 12 months. The first of which will be in service by mid-August. Due to certain confidentiality clauses in the sale agreement, we are not at liberty to discuss the sale amount. The operational management of Velvet Sky will remain unchanged; Velvet Sky's CEO Dhevan Pillay (26% shareholder) will retain his current position alongside current COO Gary Webb."

When asked about the recently announced entry of the Santaco airline, Nthite said: "The projected market focus of the Airquarius brand differs from Velvet Sky's in that we plan to expand into Africa, while their routes seem to be largely regional".

Excalibur Aerospace (Pty) Ltd, an aviation industry service provider, is owned by Excalibur Private Equity, and will be better positioned to add value to Velvet Sky than Macdonald Holdings, a steel and engineering group. Excalibur Private Equity has its head office in Houghton, Johannesburg.

Jul 2011

Velvet Sky originally planned on introducing Cape Town - Durban flights in July.

26 Mar 2011

Velvet Sky statement: "A huge thunderstorm grounded all airlines for 2 hours, compounded by a technical fault that we fixed in an hour. Cabin and flight crew are only allowed to operate for a certain number of hours and these clocks had run out by the time we were ready to fly. Safety first, so we called our standby-crew and then priority boarded families, women and children on the first flight out, turned the plane around and came back for the rest of our passengers. All Durban passengers were offered meal and accommodation vouchers. Sourcing alternate flights, or even planes, was a waste of time as universities have closed and all airlines were fully booked. We learn from these events to be better prepared for the future but there are some things that are simply out of our control. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused and thanks for sticking with us."

24 Mar 2011

Velvet Sky released this message " ‎1 million hits on our website, and over 60 planes fully booked already has meant that our website and our call centers may have been slow and you may have struggled to get in touch with us respectively. For this we do apologise.  In response we have nearly doubled our call center capabilities and have been assured by our technical team that our web servers are fit and ready for a million more hits."

24 Mar 2011

The inaugural Johannesburg to Cape Town flight is at 10h15 on the 24th March 2011.

22 Mar 2011

Velvet Sky's first flight VZ001 left Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport, landing in Durban King Shaka International Airport at about 11h25am, with water cannons forming a ceremonial “water curtain” as the Boeing 737-300 aircraft taxied towards its terminal. There were 50 guests on board, including underprivileged students from the Ikusasa School of Cooking and Cecil Reddy (Velvet Sky chairman). At King Shaka Airport they were metinter alia by Fawzia Peer (an eThekwini councillor), Dhevan Pillay (Velvet Sky CEO), and media representatives. "Watching the plane in the Velvet Sky colours land was surreal. It was a dream come true and represents the culmination of more than three years of hard work," said Pillay. “It is historic and exciting to have the first Durban-based domestic airline and operating out of King Shaka Airport. It is clearly evident that our new airport has become a major catalyst for economic growth in KZN,” said Terence Delomoney (King Shaka Airport general manager). Here's a photo the pilots on Velvet Sky's inaugural flights - Captain Mwamba Chipaila and First Officer Hannes Van Rensburg.

The inaugural commercial flight of Velvet Sky was at 17h55 from Durban to johannesburg on the 22nd March 2011

17 Mar 2011

First Car Rental announces that it has partnered up with Velvet Sky.

Says Melissa Storey, Executive Head: Strategy, Development & Marketing, “This is an exciting partnership for First Car Rental. We take our strategic alliances very seriously and adopt an approach that selects the best partners to grow with. We firmly believe in mutually beneficial relationships, focussing on each partner’s strengths, leveraging each opportunity that presents itself, and this will be the case with Velvet Sky who shares similar beliefs.

This segment will assist us in combating seasonality, enabling us to manage and balance our fleet with less risk of high volume last minute up-fleeting or de-fleeting to try and match demand. Car rental is a cyclical business, and the purchasing as well as the planning thereof, is crucial to make this contribution model work.

A low cost airline like Velvet Sky presents us with an opportunity to become the preferred car rental company of their daily direct consumer and corporate SME base, and inevitably, a stable, less seasonal domestic base. They present us with the ability to reach a captive, and more importantly, a targeted audience.

We, on the other hand, can provide Velvet Sky with an existing customer base, all our valued customers, the majority of them having to fly to a local destination before they collect a car from us. We will do all in our power to expose the Velvet Sky product to them, and ensure that we enable loyal First customers to become loyal Velvet Sky customers. We have agreed to make all our channels available to our new exclusive airline partner so that Velvet Sky ha an automatic catapult into the market. We will create brand awareness for our new partner and support them with everything available to us, which includes actual flight bookings from our website and corporate booking tools. On a lighter note, First Car Rental and Velvet Sky share similarities in their logo palette they are both predominately purple and this will make the creative process of dual branding campaigns easy on the eye and a pleasure to create this is an advantage, but just the start of great things to come.

17 Mar 2011

At a press conference and launch in Durban  Velvet Sky's Chairman, Cecil reddy (on the right in the photo, together with Captain Mwamba Chipaila, who will captain the airline's first flight), said “Durban’s first ever airline is ready for take-off. Having spent the last two years assessing the trends and demands of the airline industry, we are extremely eager to enter this market and believe that now is, without doubt, the perfect time to do so. Velvet Sky will offer passengers more choice when making their travel arrangements through realistic scheduling, competitive pricing and adding capacity to the busier routes. Our approach to launching Velvet Sky has been particularly cautious, as our aim is to guarantee an operation that will ultimately delight the South African travelling public. The increased volume of air passengers has led us to believe that the market is ready for a new entrant to bring us back to the hallmarks of air carriage. Punctuality, safety and service. We intend operating three Boeing 737 aircraft when we are at full strength. But as a new company we are adopting a prudent approach for now, and we will be phasing in our other two planes. We will, however, have other aircraft on standby to meet any service gaps,”


In a press release Velvet Sky said: “Our corporate philosophy mandates cost saving through all levels of our operation. It was this mandate that dictated Durban, with its lowered operating costs away from the bustle of our competition, as the administrative hub of the business. Our research indicates that there is an increase in air commuting while people are starting to take more frequent but shorter holidays. These and other market related factors combine to create demand for another carrier."