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- 1 425 378 people tried their luck at FlySafair's R9 ticket sale this year.
- By 13:50 on Wednesday the airline had sold 50 372 tickets through 16 487 individual bookings.
- Most of the bookings were made in Gauteng with flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town being the most popular.
"We're pleased with how the sale went this morning," Kirby Gordon, chief marketing officer at FlySafair, told News24 on Wednesday following the airline's annual low-airfare sale.
This year the local airline put 50 000 seats up for sale at only R9 for any of its domestic flights departing between 3 May 2023 and 30 November 2023.
Using a waiting room system, the airline kicked things off at 09:00 and slowly allowed people onto its site to ensure it wouldn’t collapse under the pressure.
According to the airline's data, 1 425 378 people tried their luck on the sale, nearly 200 000 more than in 2022.
"Our website handled record volumes of traffic this year and sales rolled through without hassle. During peak demand this year the airline processed sales for 492 tickets a minute up from 195 tickets a minute last year," Gordon said.
By 13:50 on Wednesday the airline sold 50 372 tickets at R9 through 16 487 individual bookings. The most tickets were sold on flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town, followed by flights between Johannesburg and Durban.
Most of the sales were made in Gauteng (49%), followed by the Western Cape (21%), KwaZulu-Natal (10%), and the Eastern Cape (4%).
Mobile devices were used by 60% of buyers to access the sale.
"Every year we get stacks of pictures on social media of people showing us how many devices they were using to try to access tickets. It was interesting to see 479 gaming consoles and 3 100 smart televisions sitting in the waiting room this year too," Gordon added.
Those who couldn’t get their hands on a R9 ticket could still get 30% off all FlySafair flights until midnight on Wednesday.
Over the past nine years, FlySafair has sold 150 000 tickets for anything between R1 and R9 in their annual sale.
Lucky passengers shared their success stories on social media.
Twitter user Kagiso (@kg_Lande) from Soweto managed to book two tickets for two adults to Durban and back for only R45. Making her dreams of flying for the first time come true.
"I got in line at 08:30 and got onto the site at around 11:00," Kagiso told News24.
"I’d say I waited for about three hours,” she said.
“I’m most looking forward to being at the beach. I've never been to one. I'm also looking forward to flying for the first time."
Now Kagiso is looking for any great hotel recommendations in Durban.
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