Member Info for Carbonix

It is dreadful to see us being wrong footed so badly. It is clear 1) the contingency plan should A319 FJD fail was wholly inadequate, and betrays a worrying disregard for reputational risk, 2) communication to the affected passengers is woeful, and 3) communications generally are poor, for example the website currently displays the date as 16 October, and irritatingly �There are no disruptions at the moment�. Any pretence we are bringing European/North American standards of a low cost model is destroyed at a stroke.

Fjetcrazy, I stand corrected about the ability to book this route - I've just tried and failed. However I promise you that the booking worked two days ago! I do appreciate your contributions on this board, more factual than many, and we can only hope this route goes ahead. And re eltonshango, the only Elton Shango I know of is British, but no doubt we will be told; in the interim I am happy to air [sic] on the side of caution...!

I thought Wolfgang had cooled towards us, but in this post about the shambles which is FlyAfrica, he praises fastjet Zimbabwe: https://atcnews.org/2017/10/20/flyafrica-no-fly-after-all-today/

... although it is not the case, eltonshango, that this route can't be booked; Harare/Lusaka flights are on the website, flying twice a week each way, from 3 November (just two weeks away). Mind you, I can see you have difficulty typing properly!

... and there are two! http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/FastJet-planed-e190.htm

Fear not, the 'mark' on the noses is just fastenings or tapes; and there are protective covers to the engines also. I'm sure she will be lovely in service! https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vOI4REsG5w8/WdYELMpXMFI/AAAAAAAAJ7A/OSC6-QB4r3cYpxKVhJjP_Ki36WNKySi0wCLcBGAs/s1600/ndegez.jpeg

Good spot, PJM. I see Solenta were given rights to Mozambique domestic routes earlier this month - see: https://southernafrican.news/2017/09/07/moz-domestic-air-routes-opened-to-competition/ and today's 'Proposed Fundraising' RNS explicitly refers to fastjet Mozambique launching in October 2017. Looking forward to it!

Quite agree, B787. People need to remember that the reported results were for January-June 2017, when the turnaround was in its infancy; it's nearly October now, and the prognosis for the "final quarter of 2017" remains very good.

Early leak of news... : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/fastjet-announces-proposed-fundraising-by-way-of-accelerated-book-build-to-raise-at-least-44-mln/articleshow/60881149.cms

Hi PJInvest - mystified by your posting on the HRE-LUN flights. Can book from 13 November on the fastjet website... as advertised. Is it me?

We now know that the original management of fastjet were, shall we say, optimistic. And many of them at least had a track record in the industry. But if you want optimism, just have a read of the Vule Airways press release; this seems to be some sort of prospectus, written as a school project, liberally using source material from "How to Set Up a Company", ""Random Facts about the Airline Industry" and "A Traveller's Guide to Uganda". My favourite sentence is "The Board of Directors believes in a policy of ensuring that Vule Airways continuously grows through ploughing back of the Retained Earnings but the Board also believes in rewarding the owners of Capital (Shareholders) for providing the necessary Capital and undertaking risks." Enjoy! https://vuleairways.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Vule-Airways-Press-Pack_August-8-2017.pdf

... and I notice that the seat layout for the DAR-MWZ flights changes from the A319 six-seats-per-row to the E190 four-seats-per-row from 31 October. The new seat layout suggests 108 seats per aircraft. And the Mandarin interior seems to feature good-looking grey seats at present; if these aren't changed, they will even suit the fastjet colour scheme! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cLL4hwmpmc

Update on the spat between South Africa and Zimbabwe - mentions fastjet as being"unaffected": https://www.thezimbabwedaily.com/news/153808-update-more-saa-flights-prevented-from-leaving-zim-in-cross-border-compliance-issue.html

I agree with hillwi; whilst obviously welcoming the current opportunistic increase in income, a less greedy approach using, as he says, their normal progressive fare algorithm, would bring immense brownie points to a new audience, and even greater market share and income in the medium term. I would think. And let's lay on some extra rotations please. Second, I agree, let's be a grown up airline and produce passenger volumes.

Hi Ronwin. I don't think it was anything to do with his being new, nor did he need your advice. JT was simply pointing out that this supposed to be a FJET board. And I agree with him. Welcome, JT!

Hi Fjetcrazy - whoooaaah! 1) I know we've been expecting two E190s for a while, but am I not right in thinking that this link is the first time we've known the source of them, i.e. GECAS/Mandarin? Which implies the plans for E190s are on track. 2) And, yes, we've known about Solenta's AOCs (I posted the link to their map a while ago), but presumably these are mainly for turboprops; as I understand it, AOCs are aircraft-type specific, are they not, as they usually include details of aircraft 'suitable for the type of operations requested', and acceptable systems (and Operations Manual) for the training of crew and the operation of said aircraft. So I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time that Fastjet themselves have confirmed they may use turboprops, so doesn't that bring Solenta's AOCs even more into play? Which is what I found so interesting. Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick.

... and if we are getting a couple of E190s from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), currently leased to Mandarin Airlines, they are all currently fitted with 104 all-economy grey leather seats. Perfect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cLL4hwmpmc Let's hope they come soon.

An interesting news item at ch-aviation, on the Howell interview with Silvain Bosc - I don't think we were aware before of the source of the two E190s for Tanzania, let alone the fascinating assertion that "fastjet is able to deploy Solenta aircraft on any one of Solenta's AOCs on the African continent under the fastjet brand." See https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/58544-fastjet-considering-turboprop-operations Onwards and upwards, Stalwarts.

For those interested.... Looking at the recent Places edition again (which I like the look and feel of), the pagination is at fault, probably as a result of late changes. So the index page numbers are correct, but haven't been carried through to the pages themselves, so that pages 3, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 21 and 33 are 'missing'; and the page numbers, usually positioned on the outside corners, have retained their original position. Other oddities are that the right hand half of page 29 (which is actually page 22) appears to be missing, and the final article is an odd back page to have, as normally this would carry an (expensive) advert. As you say, must Try Harder.

... but possibly nothing new to us because 'fastjet News' is on page 44 - and as you point out, we only have the first 40 pages here!