Traffic on African skies is increasing as more budget and low cost airlines begin to make flights, jostling for a blossoming market driven by a growing middle class across major cities on the continent.

Fastjet, Flydubai, JamboJet, and Mango are some of the airlines that are opening new flight routes to capture the growing demand from new travelers who are willing to pay for an air ticket, if the price is just right.

Decades of low investment in road and railway networks on the continent coupled with a growing middle class has given birth to a new market for airlines; time conscious passengers want the convenience and comfort that air travel affords them.

Business travellers have also increased over the couple of years, locally and internationally as they folk to look for deals in energy, construction, mining, oil and gas industries.

Airlines say that there is demand from these travellers who are willing to buy a ticket if the price is right.

At a launch in Nairobi last week, officials from JamboJet said that since it began operations in April it has been flying some 45,000 passengers every month and it expects more booking in coming months.

The Kenyan low cost carrier launched a campaign dubbed #Occupyjambojet which is targeting to get more passengers to use planes, especially those who have never flown before.

“We have managed to significantly bring down the barriers of flying, making it affordable for almost anyone to fly. #Occupyjambojet is driven by this and will reach more people, giving them an opportunity to experience flying through a fun campaign,” Captain Aquinas Birika, the chief pilot and director at JamboJet told AFKInsider.

Flights are becoming cheaper, lowering the barrier to air travel.

An online ticket aggregator search shows that the price of an air ticket between Nairobi and Kisumu, a lakeside town along Lake Victoria costs $89 on JamboJet but on Kenya Airways — JamboJet’s parent company — the same round trip will cost more than $181.

Opening new low cost routes

Fastjet, whose stock trades on the London Stock Exchange and has its headquarters in Gatwick, has shown gumption, expanding to East and Southern Africa despite some major setbacks.

The airline launched services connecting Entebbe (Uganda) and Dar-es-salaam (Tanzania) with plans to further expand to other cities.

“We believe the launch of this route, the only direct air link between Uganda and Tanzania, will stimulate new business and tourism traffic in Uganda,” said Fastjet chief executive Ed Winter in a statement issued in late August.

A one-way ticket between the two East Africa cities costs $125, excluding taxes.

The airline also flies between cities of Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Lusaka, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro and Mbeya.

Despite its Kenyan operations flying into turbulence after it continued to hemorrhage money, the airline has said that it will take a second stab at muscling in on East Africa’s largest market.

It has applied for a license to operate an airline in Kenya, three months after it severed links with Fly540, its parent company.

It’s A Tough Market

In 2013 Fastjet wrote off some $10 million from the Kenyan venture, but analysts say that it is still too early to tell if the airlines will soar or cry Mayday.

An airline report by SBG Securities says that the high fatality rate of budget airlines show that the model is a dangerous one in Africa.

“A case study of Mango Airlines, the low-cost subsidiary of SAA reveals the unprofitable nature of an LCC strategy in Africa, although several lessons can be learnt by network airlines regarding costs,” said the report.

“Even with high aircraft seat density configuration, the model is still challenging in the African aviation space especially between secondary cities, which are presumably cheaper to operate.”

Africa’s biggest economy has produced examples of airlines that have failed to financially takeoff.

In November 2012 South African low cost carrier 1time filed for bankruptcy and closed shop after failing to make a profit for eight straight years since it launched operation.

Velvet Sky, another compatriot airline had a shorter lifespan, closing shop in May 2012 barely one year since it was launched.

Johnson Nderi, a research and corporate finance manager at ABC Capital, says that it will be a balancing act for airlines but they may get it right.

“The price at which you secure the plane at, oil prices are trending downwards so that should help but at the end of the day, the highest costs of a plan are fuel and staff and that is where the challenge is,” Nderi told AFKInsider.