New airline to launch in 2020

The South African domestic flight travel industry has seen a tremendous change – with forecasted profit margins dropping at alarming rates given the lockdown restrictions, and the likes of Comair going into business rescue, despite performing fairly well over the past couple of years. If the aviation industry is so tough, globally and constrained locally, the question is, why would former Kulula founder Gidon Novick, develop a new domestic airline in 2020. Planned to take to its first flights between the Johannesburg and Cape in December 2020, the new airline is deemed to take a high-tech Uber like operating model geared at introducing more tech domestic travel. Cobie Legrange talked to Gidon Novick, founder of Lucid Ventures, about the strategic rationale and wisdom of launching a new airline in the Covid-19 era, which has brought airline, hospitality and related industries to a virtual halt.