New SA domestic carrier, LIFT, has announced that it has cancelled all its flights from July 5-31 due to the impact of the new adjusted level four regulations.

LIFT currently only operates flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town so the new regulations, which prohibit domestic leisure travel in and out of Gauteng, severely impact the airline’s operations.

“People are choosing to stay at home for now. Understandably so. Our crew are also better off staying put until this wave recedes and the vaccination roll-out reaches critical mass. We’re very lucky that LIFT’s agile, demand-driven business model allows us to scale up and down as things change. And change, they certainly do,” said LIFT CEO, Jonathan Ayache.

LIFT’s Head of Commercial, Cilliers Jordaan, told Tourism Update that the domestic aviation market had been predominantly relying on leisure travel as the corporate market had not yet rebounded. With this week’s regulations banning domestic travel in and out of Gauteng, Jordaan said all local airlines had reacted by reducing flight schedules but, as LIFT only operated on the Johannesburg-Cape Town route, it had been particularly affected by the ban, leading to the decision to temporarily cancel flights.

Jordaan explained that LIFT would continue to operate flights until July 4 to ensure that passengers were not left stranded, as the flurry of travellers and students who needed to return home for lockdown travelled between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

LIFT reports that more than 1 000 passengers took advantage of LIFT’s flexible terms and conditions this week, cancelling or changing their flights after the lockdown regulations were announced. Remaining passengers affected by LIFT’s flight suspensions were being re-accommodated on other airlines by LIFT, said Jordaan, who explained that flights would be booked as close as possible to the passenger’s original arrangements.

He added that COVID-19 infection numbers indicated that the latest travel restrictions could be in place for longer than the initial two-week timeframe that the president had indicated. That’s why LIFT had made a commercial decision to cancel flights until July 31.

According to Jordaan, the July flight cancellations will have limited financial impact on LIFT, due to the airline’s operating model, which was developed to allow the carrier to easily adapt to the fluidity of travel demand. He said, due to LIFT’s variable cost model, it operated with an extremely low fixed-cost base, allowing it to easily scale operations up and down.

Jordaan denied rumours that LIFT’s flight cancellations were in any way linked to the recent announcement that LIFT’s partner, Global Airlines, was in the consortium selected as SAA’s new strategic equity partner.

“We are very proud of the strong brand that we have built for LIFT in a very short period of time and remain committed to the continuity of the brand, regardless of Global’s partnership with SAA.”

In a statement uploaded on the airline’s website, LIFT Co-founder, Gidon Novick, responded to the query about how SAA and the relationship with Global would impact LIFT. “As a start-up itself, the new SAA will benefit from LIFT’s learning, expertise and systems. This agreement is set to unlock opportunities for us moving forward as a group and for the South African public. While LIFT and Global Airways are an integral part of the consortium, LIFT will continue to operate independently of SAA.”