Elmar Conradie

Happy New Year and thanks so much for choosing FlySafair for your flight today. It’s a pleasure to have you on board with us and I hope that you have a great flight!

Last year was certainly one for the history books and hopefully 2021 brings us all great things. It was, without a doubt, a year in which we all learnt a lot.

Operating any business through the national lockdown, and the difficult circumstances that followed, was a massive challenge. Airlines were among the industries that were particularly hard hit and recovering from this is tough work.

The Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdowns did happen though. It was a horrible period – people died and businesses failed.However,itisnowapartofourhistory,andwecanchoose to lament it, or we can look to take what lessons we can from it and move on.

Our industry is forever changed. Not only has the competitor set on the local market been altered, but so too have many other factors, like people’s concerns when it comes to travelling. Where once we used to have to work carefully to prepare and support nervous fliers, we now also have to be ready to support customers concerned about their health aboard aircraft.

We’ve always prided ourselves on being in touch with our customers: their concerns, their needs and their wants. One thing we’ve realised is that it is quite easy to say that when things pretty much stay the same, but things are different now, people are different, and so too are their concerns, their needs and their wants.

Part of our recovery process was to approach our return to the skies as if we were almost launching a new airline. Sure, we took along much of what we’ve learnt over the past six years, but to us it was important to greet our customers again with a genuine interest in them and no preconceived ideas about who they are or what they want from an airline… because it’s different now.

With the dawn of a fresh new year, it seems like a good time to return to that approach! So if you have any thoughts, comments, insights, musings, queries, or even dreams that you would like to share with us, please don’t hold back! We’d love to receive your emails at feedback@flysafair.co.za.

Until then I wish you nothing but success in 2021.