MANGO ceo, Nico Bezuidenhout, says the carrier is interested in expanding its low-cost operation further into sub-Saharan Africa, particularly to leisure destinations such as Victoria Falls and Dar es Salaam, but he says continued airspace restrictions over Africa make this impossible at this stage.

He said consumer behaviour patterns had not yet changed sufficiently to make a low-cost long-haul operation from South Africa feasible, especially against competition from Middle East carriers.  Speaking on how to be profitable in a cut-throat, depressed market, he said other challenges were the small size of the domestic market; the low propensity for travel; and low credit card and Internet penetration in the domestic market. Mango tackled this by demystifying air travel, educating the travelling public and using non-traditional distribution channels such as retail outlets, making travel a commodity like anything else.