Kulula.com (stylized as kulula.com) and commonly referred to as Kulula was a South African

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...

, operating on major domestic routes from

O. R. Tambo International Airport O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport serving the twin cities of Johannesburg and the main capital of South Africa, Pretoria. It is situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng, Kempton Park, Gauteng. It serves as the primary air ...

and

Lanseria International Airport Lanseria International Airport is a privately owned international airport that is situated north of Randburg and Sandton to the northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. The airport can handle aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 757-300 an ...

, both serving the city of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

. The airline's headquarters were located at

Bonaero Park Bonaero Park is a southeastern suburb of Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, in Gauteng province, South Africa. It lies directly next to OR Tambo International Airport, the busiest airport in Africa. Bonaero Park was built in the 1960s to house employees f ...

, Kempton Park,

Ekurhuleni The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (; ; ; ) is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng, a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. ''Ekurhuleni'' means "place of peace" in Xi ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

. The name 'Kulula' comes from the

Nguni Nguni may refer to: *Nguni languages *Nguni cattle *Nguni people *Nguni sheep, which divide into the Tsonga sheep, Tsonga, Ngoni (sheep), Ngoni, and Swazi sheep, Swazi types *Nguni stick-fighting * Nguni shield * Nguni homestead *Nguni (surname: Hl ...

languages of Zulu and

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

, meaning ''It's easy.'' Kulula suspended operations on 1 June 2022 pending securing of additional funding The company was placed into liquidation on 9 June 2022.

History

Kulula.com was established in July 2001 and commenced operations as South Africa's first 'no-frills' carrier in August of that year. The stated aim was to position kulula.com as more than just an airline brand, but to include booking, paying and making 'the complete travel experience' affordable. In 2010, Kulula.com was forced by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

to stop a campaign describing itself as the "Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What", which took place "Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between", obviously referring to the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

which took place in South Africa at that time. Another advert announced "affordable flights oeverybody except

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

" (the FIFA president), who was offered a free seat "for the duration of that thing that is happening right now". In July 2012 Kulula.com announced that it was operating the first of seven brand new Boeing 737-800s, with three to be in operation before the end of that year, and the remaining four to be delivered in 2015 and 2016. Kulula.com and parent company Comair suspended operations towards the end of March 2020 due to financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline resumed operations in September 2021. On 1 June 2022, Kulula.com suspended all flights and entered business rescue Kulula.com was accused of using a sale a day before to raise cash before stopping flights. Since suspension, only people who booked through Discovery Vitality were given the opportunity to obtain a refund. On 9 June 2022 the business rescue practitioners announced that there was no reasonable prospect of rescue of either Kulula or Comair and that the companies be placed into liquidation.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

Kulula.com was a wholly owned subsidiary of Comair Ltd, which also operated flights as a

franchisee Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

. Kulula.com, the British Airways franchise Southern Africa and Comair Ltd suspended operations in July 2020 due to financial issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business trends

Financial and operational results for Kulula.com are not separately disclosed, but are fully incorporated within the annual results for Comair (for years ending 30 June).

Destinations

As of March 2019, Kulula served the following destinations:

Codeshare agreements

Kulula held

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

s with the following airlines: * Comair *

Kenya Airways Kenya Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Kenya Airways, is the flag carrier airline of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. Its head office is located in Embakasi, Nairobi, with its Airline hu ...

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

Fleet

As of October 2018, the Kulula.com fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Historical fleet

Kulula previously operated the following aircraft: *

Boeing 727-200 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airp ...

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating ...

McDonnell Douglas MD-82 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...

Liveries

Kulula.com became known for its distinctive, brightly coloured, and often comedic

aircraft liveries An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, in a few cases, direct downward thrust from its e ...

. One of its former aircraft, known as ''Flying 101'', was covered with a legend describing the different parts of the aircraft.

Services

Loyalty programme

Kulula.com operated the Avios

frequent-flyer programme A frequent-flyer programme (FFP) is a loyalty program offered by an airline. Many airlines have frequent-flyer programmes designed to encourage airline customers enrolled in the programme to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometres, ...

, which was created from the merger of the

Air Miles Air Miles is a group of loyalty programs operated by different companies in each region where the brand operates - the programs are available in Canada, the Netherlands, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Points are earned on purchases ...

, BA Miles and Iberia Plus Points schemes on 16 November 2011. A restructure in 2015 meant that all of IAG's affiliated loyalty programmes which use Avios, including Avios Travel Reward Programme, Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club were transferred to Avios Group, an IAG subsidiary.

Inflight services

Kulula.com offered food and drinks as a buy-on-board programme.Flight info
." ''kulula.com''. Accessed 6 May 2009. The airline's in-flight magazine, ''khuluma'', had a readership base of 200,000 per month.

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulula Air Defunct airlines of South Africa Airlines established in 2001 Airlines disestablished in 2022 2001 establishments in South Africa 2022 disestablishments in South Africa Defunct low-cost airlines South African brands Companies based in Ekurhuleni Kempton Park, Gauteng