This has been achieved by eliminating business class, avoiding pre-assigned seating and by not offering free in-flight meals and drinks. Although frequent flyer programs do not exist and no flight changes and cancellation refunds are accepted, the prices are extremely low.
Flight prices are variable - the earlier the booking is made, the cheaper the flight, and flights are only available between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Despite these limitations, the service has been well received and the company has taken off. In just over one year kulala.com has developed a business to the point where it now flies between 40 000 and 50 000 passengers a month. It has been a local success story that has defied an international decline in air travel.
In May the airline declared an increase in frequency on the Johannesburg to Cape Town route as a part of Comair`s market growth of 12%. Excellent results that show that the deliberate strategy of targeting a new customer base has paid off handsomely. Comair has a much longer history. With over five decades of high-quality flying, it became British Airways Comair in 1996 and was quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1998, still remaining a South African controlled company.
Comair has obviously done its homework. So it is not surprising that when it needed to upgrade its customer services, it knew exactly what it wanted - full customer service support, improved service levels, reservations and ticket sale functions on a national basis.
Additionally, Comair wanted to increase revenue by reducing the call abandoned rates, but without having to increase the number of call centre agents. A tough challenge for any carrier. There was strong competition for the contract, especially from Siemens, which was offering its Hicom and Aspect solution, and which was already the established preferred supplier for Comair`s business partner, British Airways.
But Alcatel`s superiority won the day. Thanks to an existing good service and support relationship between Comair and Alcatel, Comair`s requirements were easily met. Alcatel also offered, as part of a complete package, scalability of functionality and capacity, coupled with an excellent value for money solution.
Having already installed an Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 platform, and an Alcatel OmniTouch Contact Centre for Comair in June 1999 - which increased productivity and service levels by 38% over the first six months, and which has continued to grow month by month - Alcatel was able to relate to the needs of Comair`s plans for kulula.com much more easily. Alcatel`s new solution was to install OmniPCX 4400 platforms countrywide with real-time detailed traffic network reports from the OmniPCX 4400 CCX sited at Johannesburg.
By implementing the OmniPCX 4400 CCX, full call centre routing with automated call distribution and centralised management control was provided. With only 72 hours lead-time, Alcatel created additional capacity for an initial team of eight agents and reconfigured the existing system to push forward the unique fun image that kulula.com promotes with image greetings and announcements. Alcatel met the launch deadline with a seamless service to both Comair`s and kulula`s clients and staff.
The level of success was unanticipated. Profitability was achieved from day one and since then call volumes have increased by 150%. Client response to the new carrier has exceeded expectations, with outstanding profitability from inception. Not only has kulula.com been a phenomenal achievement, it has also dramatically increased Comair`s domestic market share by 12%. The resulting increase in revenue has meant a very short return on initial investment for Comair.
No other South African carrier has come even close to this spectacular performance.
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