Safair

This article is about the South African charter airline. For its subsidiary, the South African low-cost carrier, see FlySafair.

Safair is an airline based at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, South Africa.^[1] It operates one of the world's largest fleets of civil Lockheed L-100 Hercules cargo aircraft.^[2][3]

Safair

IATA ICAO Call sign FA SFR CARGO
Founded	1965
Hubs	O.R. Tambo International Airport
Fleet size	34
Headquarters	Dublin, Ireland, Ireland
Website	flysafair.co.za

History

Safair Operations as it is known today was established in 1965. At the time it was known as Tropair (Pty) Ltd and was a general aviation charter company. In 1970 the company name changed to Safair Freighters (Pty) Ltd when the company was purchased by Safmarine and the new entity began operations on 18 March 1970. Its primary client in the 1980s was the South African Defence Force.^[4]

Safair is a Level 4 BBBEE contributor. Safair Operations (PTY) LTD has been independently verified in accordance with the Codes of Good Practice, issued in terms of section 9(1) of the Broad Black Based Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 as Amended per Act 46 of 2013 (Gazette 37271 of 27 January 2014). Safair is an affiliate airline of ASL Aviation Holdings. Humanitarian Aid and Relief operations has always been Safair's "niche" market. Safair assists aid and relief agencies such as the United Nations, World Food Programme, and the International Committee of the Red Cross in delivering much needed humanitarian aid to stricken regions on the African continent as well as other areas in the world where such assistance is required.^[5]

Until 2018, Safair was contracted to the Italian Antarctic Program (National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA)) to support science over the austral summer, flying Lockheed L-100-30 missions from Christchurch, New Zealand to Zucchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. In 2007, Safair obtained its IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA)^[6] approval.

Fleet

Safair Boeing 737-300 at Sharjah International Airport

Safair Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules

Safair L100-30 ZS-RSC sitting on the Deep Freeze ramp at Christchurch International Airport in between missions to Zucchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica

As of July 2019^[update] the Safair fleet consists of the following aircraft:^[7][8]

Safair fleet

Aircraft	In fleet	On order	Notes
Boeing 737-800	7		Passenger
Boeing 737-400	10		Passenger
Boeing 737-400C	1		Combi aircraft
Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules	6		Freight only, passenger only, or combi
Lockheed Martin LM-100J		10	Ordered in 2014 to replace current L-100s
Total	24	10

Previously operated

• ATR 72^[9]
• Beechcraft 1900D^[10]
• Boeing 707-320^[11]
• Boeing 727-100^{[citation needed]}
• Boeing 727-200^[9]
• Boeing 737-200^[9]
• British Aerospace 146-100QT^{[citation needed]}
• British Aerospace 146-200QC^{[citation needed]}
• CASA CN-235^[9]
• Convair 580^{[citation needed]}
• Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules^[9]
• McDonnell Douglas MD-81^[9]
• McDonnell Douglas MD-82^[9]
• Partenavia P.68B^{[citation needed]}
• Partenavia AP.68TP-600 Viator^{[citation needed]}

Reliability and on-time performance

In October 2023, Safair was the most reliable low-cost carrier according to Cirium's On-Time Performance rankings.^[12] In October 2023, Safair flights arrived on time 90.81% of the time.^[13]

FlySafair

Main article: FlySafair

In 2013, Safair created a low-cost carrier operating under a separate brand called FlySafair. The initial plan to operate flights in October 2013 had to be cancelled, as a result of a High Court application by Comair.^[14] FlySafair is currently operational, with the first flight having taken place on 16 October 2014.^[15] FlySafair operates passenger flights between Cape Town, George, PortElizabeth,Johannesburg, Lanseria, Durban, Bloemfontein, KMIA, East London, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Harare, Livingstone,Victoria Falls and Maputo.^[16]