Fastjet
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| Public | |
| Industry | Airline |
| Headquarters | Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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Clive Carver (Executive Chairman) Nico Bezuidenhout (CEO) Lisa Mitchell (CFO) Richard Bodin (COO) |
| Revenue |
 US$65.1 million(2015) |
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US$ -37.9 million (2013/14) |
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| Subsidiaries |
Fastjet Tanzania Fastjet Zimbabwe |
| Website | fastjet |
Fastjet Plc (LSE:FJET) is a British-based holding company for a group of low-cost carriers that are, or are expected to be, operating in Africa. The company's stated aim is to become the continent's first low-cost, pan-African airline, and the operation was initially created with the acquisition of Fly540, an airline operating in East Africa; flights in Fastjet's own name commenced in November 2012 in Tanzania. In order to satisfy local ownership and other requirements, the current strategy is to create locally incorporated airlines to operate services using a common branding, operational standards and sales platform.
The initial operation is now run as Fastjet Tanzania, and Fastjet Zimbabwe commenced flights in October 2015. Although Fastjet Zambia was at an advanced planning stage, in April 2016 it was announced that progress was being deferred until at least the final quarter of 2016.
While originally thought to be competing with easyJet, it was later claimed by The Daily Telegraph that Fastjet was planned to be a transatlantic long-haul airline.
It was eventually revealed that Fastjet was a proposed low-cost African airline, and that an agreement had been signed with Rubicon Investments.
By June 2012 the plans had become clearer. To start the operations, Rubicon Diversified Investments Plc (later renamed Fastjet Plc) completed the acquisition of Lonrho's airline division for a transaction value of US$85.7m, satisfied by the issue of Rubicon ordinary shares to Lonrho. Key shareholders in the enlarged company would be Lonrho and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, through his easyGroup Holdings Limited (“easyGroup”). The airline division acquired included the African regional airline Fly 540, operating in Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, which would form the platform for the development of a low cost carrier for Africa, branded ‘Fastjet’ under the terms of the easyGroup brand licence agreement.
The airline chose Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as its first operating base in Africa, with flights from Julius Nyerere International Airport commencing on 29 November 2012. Initially flights operated successfully between Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro, and between Dar es Salaam and Mwanza. Further routes were to be added quickly, both domestically and to other East African destinations, and FastJet said it would move its operation office from Tanzania to Kenya, once it has approval to operate in Kenya. Once established in East Africa, FastJet also had plans to launch in Ghana and Angola, other Fly540 areas of operation, but all these expansion plans appear to have become embroiled in a public dispute between Fastjet and the original Fly540 management regarding outstanding debts and validity of operating licences. In May 2014 Fly540 Ghana and Fly540 Angola were both shut down as they were incompatible with the Fastjet low cost model.
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Wikipedia