We have heard that Santaco (SA National Taxi Council) are planning on launching their own low-cost airline in South Africa (hot on the heels of Velvet Sky launching a few months ago). It will be called the Santaco Express and officially launch on September 16, and start operating in November. The way they are going to be different is that they will provide a full service of taxi rank to taxi rank. So you would pay a single price and that would get you from the taxi rank to the airport, the flight, and then by taxi to the next taxi rank. One of the routes proposed would be from Lanseria to Bhisho. In the beginning Santaco Express would be operated by Air Aquarius, which would hand over all management to Santaco within 18 – 24 months.
Now although the thought of a taxi driver controlling an airplane is terrifying, this would never happen. If Santaco would operate this with professional air staff and experienced members, it might actually turn out to be quite popular. The airline would fly routes that the other scheduled domestic airlines do not (into more rural areas), provide an all inclusive price (taxi-plane-taxi), and has access to 15 million taxi passengers per day.

What are your thoughts? Will this ever really get off the ground? Let us know on Facebook