Review of FlySafair flight from Durban to Johannesburg in Economy

Introduction

Hi there!

Welcome to my first Flight-Report of this year!

This Flight-Report will cover a FlySafair flight I took on my latest trip to South Africa. 

As I don't have enough pictures coming from other flights of this trip, I decided not to publish any Flight-Reports on them.

Anyway, let's dive in into why I ended up choosing QR for this trip! 

Unlike the last time I flew to South Africa, this trip would involve a short stay in Johannesburg, meaning I won't be able to take the much more convenient Turkish Airlines flight that takes me all the way to Durban without the need to make a connection in Joburg.

Options for flying to JNB from Europe are plentiful. Finding reasonably-priced flights is an easy task, but most of them involve a connection in the Middle East, significantly increasing the flight time.
The issue? My dates weren't flexible enough, making the search for a reasonably-priced ticket much more difficult.
I ended up stumbling upon a good deal with QR, which of course involved a connection in DOH, and, as explained before, a journey that's quite a bit longer than with KLM or BA. 

As for the domestic flights, I ended up booking them with Safair, as they offer more frequencies than any of their competitors on the JNB-DUR route. 

Durban King Shaka Airport

Welcome to DUR! The weather in Durban was terrible during my stay. At least that's a thing I won't miss here! 

Behind the pillars is hiding a recently-inaugurated statue of King Shaka :

The drop-off area :

And here's the departure hall :

The arrivals area is located just under the departure hall :

Check-in opened soon after I arrived, and didn't involve any queuing :

Free newspapers are available :

Hidden behind the billboard is a Qatar Airways A350-900 which will soon take off to Doha via Maputo (Mozambique). 

Another view of the departure hall :

As I had 2 hours to spare before boarding, I decided to head down and explore the few shops available around the arrivals area.
Christmas decorations are already everywhere.

An information centre…

…and a mosaic. 

After having explored each corner of the airport's arrivals area, I decided to go back up to the departure hall and pass security. SAA is advertising their "new" flights to São Paulo.

Fortunately, security was quick and easy. There airside area has a decent number of shops, much larger than on the international side of the terminal.

Most planes here are Safair 737s.

Seating is plentiful.

Today's flight will depart from gate A13.

The international departures area is empty. Durban only has 3 long-haul routes - Turkish Airlines to Istanbul via Johannesburg, Qatar Airways to Doha via Maputo, and Emirates which flies nonstop to Dubai. There are some regional flights, to Mauritius, Angola, Zimbabwe, Eswatini/Swaziland, and a few more. Before Covid, BA and Ethiopian served the airport.

Passengers who booked "business class" were invited to wait in the ramp below. At that time, the plane hadn't even arrived yet.

Here's ZS-SJG, a 24 years old 737-800 wearing the old livery of FlySafair. It started it's career with SAA before moving to it's low-cost subsidiary Mango until 2020. This plane flies for Safair since 2021.

Soon enough, economy passengers started queuing. We each had our passports controlled and were given these small pieces of cardboard with "boarded" written on them. We handed them back to the boarding agent afterwards. 

Boarding started a few minutes later.

The 737 :

As always with Safair, passengers seated behind the wings board via airstairs on the back, while the ones seated before the wings board via the jetbridge. Boarding from the back makes for some great shots of the plane!

A Cemair CRJ…

…and the terminal building.

Here's another Safair 737 painted in a special 10 years livery.

The door :

And here's the seat, with the safety card glued on the tray table, as often with low-cost carriers.

The airline's logo is absent from the seatbelt.

The passenger service unit :

Here's the content of the seatback pocket :

And the usual waste bag :

The winglet doesn't feature the usual springbok I've seen on other Safair planes. 

Pushback was on time :

Another 737 :

Taxiing was quick; Durban isn't the largest airport out there!

The control tower :

And here's the runway!

Take off!

Welcome to the skies!

The plane then turned west in the direction of Johannesburg :

The view quickly changed :

The cabin :

Few people ordered food from the buy-on-board menu, as expected on such a short flight. 

The rest of the flight was uneventful :

Sooner than later, descent started.

The city appears below the wing :

Boksburg and it's lake, with the CBD in the background.

Touchdown!

A nice A350-900 belonging to SIA :

All these widebody planes arrive in the morning and stay here in JNB until the evening.

Qatar Cargo 777F :

Taxiing was quick.

A small Airlink Embraer is hiding behind the winglet :

Qatar and Singapore :

This Iberia A340-600 is likely grounded forever…

All passengers were asked to stay seated until they were called by rows of five to exit. I find this process to be very efficient, and it avoids crowding. 

(I have asperger's syndrome and I'm usually very uncomfortable with crowds of people!)

Welcome to the airport!

The group of passengers coming from this flight crowded the escalator - fortunately, no one bothered to walk a few more meters to take another set of escalators that was leading the the exact same place but was completely empty! As such I was able to avoid the crowd.

I waited about five minutes at baggage claim.

I'll end this flight-report on this photo :