Times Of Swaziland: ESWATINI AIR CUSTOMERS’ 1HR WAIT FOR PRINCESS - STAKEHOLDER

ESWATINI AIR CUSTOMERS’ 1HR WAIT FOR PRINCESS - STAKEHOLDER
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Kwanele Dlamini on 24/08/2024 07:22:00


MANZINI - Eswatini Air customers once waited for about an hour in a flight as it
was purportedly waiting for a certain princess.
This was revealed by one of the stakeholders during a consultative meeting which
was hosted by Eswatini Air at The Gorge Hotel, yesterday morning. The
stakeholder first congratulated Eswatini Air for last year’s achievements. He
then expressed his disappointment to the airline based on what he experienced at
King Mswati III (KMIII) International Airport. He said he and other customers of
Eswatini Air had booked their flight well on time, but they were made to wait
for about an hour, as the flight was waiting for a certain princess.
He said as customers, they were affected and some of them missed their flights
as they were connecting to other destinations, like Dubai, among others. “My
plea to Eswatini Air is that it should take us (clients) seriously,” the
stakeholder said. He also advised the airline to leave politics out when doing
business  and have a suggestion box, where its customers would write their
suggestions on where and how the organisation could improve. Otherwise, he said
the company has great potential to grow and contribute to the development of the
country.
Improve
On the other hand, Eswatini Air management assured the stakeholders that they
would improve their services. They also highlighted that they already have a
site where customers send their suggestions. They said the back of their flights
have a Quick Response (QR) Code, which when they scan, would direct them to the
site where they could drop their suggestions, experience and complaints. On the
other hand, Royal Eswatini National Airways Cooperation (RENAC) Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) Qiniso Dhlamini, was asked  about the concern that was recently
raised by parliamentarians in Parliament on why Eswatini Air flight to OR Tambo
International Airport had more empty seats than the one operated by Airlink.
In response, the CEO said one of the main purposes of the stakeholder
consultative meeting was to inform them (stakeholders) that their fares of the
competitor had been reduced as a reaction to Eswatini Air’s market
entry.Therefore, he said they encourage the stakeholders to continue supporting
them so that they could remain in business and that would mean the fares would
also stay low. However, he said if they do not get the support they need, they
would be pushed out of business and this would mean there would be monopoly in
the business and air ticket prices might go up gain.
Stressful
The CEO said one of the contributing factors was that initially, when a
passenger who wants to connect at OR Tambo International Airport, but had bought
two tickets or more, separately, they have to do a luggage-check even in
Johannesburg and this was stressful for them, thus they ended up choosing the
competitor. However, he was quick to highlight that now they have found a
solution to the challenge. The CEO also said another contributing factor was
connecting times, as some passengers had concerns that they wait  long hours to
connect. He said this could be addressed if their stakeholders could support
them, as this would increase their fleet, which would see the airline also
increasing the frequency of flights. He said when the frequency of flights was
increased, connecting time would definitely decrease.