Low-cost carrier FlySafair, presently operating between Johannesburg, Cape Town, George and Port Elizabeth, did a study on their passenger make-up and was able to share stats on the differences between travellers from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
In the first finding, 64% of the visitors to the FlySafair website and who are making flight bookings are women. This is true in all provinces, but the Eastern Cape offers the largest female audience at 65.37%.
If the stereotypes hold true, one might expect the Joburg women may be the ones that come with the most luggage. But it's actually the folks in the Eastern Cape that are most likely to check a suitcase, with 54% tagging their suitcases at the scales compared to 52% of Joburgers and only 48% of people from the Western Cape.
"When we launched the airline, we decided to exclude a checked in suitcase from our basic fare, meaning you aren't forced to pay for a suitcase if you don't plan to take one. This allows us to keep our fares low and gives people the choice - which they seem to appreciate," explains Kirby Gordon, vice-president of marketing at FlySafair.
Each of the provinces also had a pretty clear stand-out feature that defined their travel habits. People from the Western Cape seem to be on the cutting edge of mobile technology with 34.6% of web traffic to the FlySafair website coming from mobile phones and tablet devices. Gauteng wasn't miles behind with a 32.6% proportion. Those in the Eastern Cape seem to prefer to kick-it old-school with over 80% of visits happening on PCs leaving only 19.7% of visits to mobile devices.
Before you claim it's because the Eastern Cape is populated by the retired generations, you'll be surprised to know the Western Cape had the highest proportion of visitors over the age of 55 at 18.3%, shadowing Gauteng at 14.4% and the Eastern Cape at 15.8%.
The Eastern Cape crew are into their sports. As a province, they were twice as likely to travel with sports equipment as people from the Western Cape or Gauteng.
Lastly, Gautengers are some of the most cautious and are the most likely to opt for travel insurance when flying. Compared to their coastal counterparts, Joburgers are twice as likely to buy insurance when flying, to protect them from delays or issues with luggage.
