Aiming to surpass all expectations

Mango Airlines is celebrating 11 years of flying high by acknowledging its passengers by delivering customer service excellence.

On November 15 2006 Mango first took to the South African skies in what has now become SA’s trademark orange low-cost airline, bringing together families, friends and businesspeople previously divided by geography.

“In the 11 years since our first flight, we have taken off in many other memorable ways, among the most important being the level of customer service that our passengers enjoy,” says Nic Vlok, acting CEO at Mango Airlines.

“A reflection of Mango’s focus on customer service is that not only did the airline double its fleet in the first decade of serving its passengers in the skies, but it also increased its network of destinations by 150% in the first 10 years. From a starting point of only connecting Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, we gradually added Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Lanseria, Zanzibar and George.

“Today, we have flown in excess of 20-million guests over an average of 1,700 flights a month,” says Vlok.

An indication of Mango’s passengers’ enjoyment of its accent on customer service is the airline’s sustained growth. Mango reports a 1% year-onyear increase in “load factor” for the period 2016-17.

“Simply put, we managed to carry more passengers per flight than the year before. Passenger load factor is an important measurement tool for the performance of any airline when it comes to operational efficiency — something that Mango places high value on,” says Vlok.

And the high value Mango places on operational efficiency is related to the importance the multiple award-winning airline places on serving its customers.

“Customer service has been fundamental to Mango Airlines’ success and is integral to our customers’ experience of the brand. We are in the service industry and serving our customers is the reason Mango Airlines exists,” says Vlok.

“We differentiate our service offering by creating customer service value. For Mango, it is incredibly important to make sure that the value proposition presented to customers is more than their expectation.

“Our aim is to ensure our customers are in control of their own journey through our mobile app and website. We have the ability to talk to our customers and communicate schedules, changes and updates which creates a level of confidence.”

Vlok says the airline measures its customer service via a personalised telephonic survey conducted on a weekly basis with a representative number of passengers from each flight to ascertain the quality of their experience with Mango and how the airline can improve its service to close any gap that exists between passenger expectations and Mango’s service delivery.

Vlok says the Sunday Times awarded the airline the Highest Ranking Low-cost Carrier in SA in their Top Brands and Generation Next awards in 2007, 2014, 2015 and 2017.