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• South Africa’s low-cost airlines have started to offer holiday packages in anticipation of the return of leisure travel.
• Comair, operating British Airways and Kulula, is the latest to relaunch its holiday booking platform.
• Kulula holidays uses AI travel booking technology which scans flights and accommodation according to the selected dates.
• While the platform offers holiday packages in several destinations, its focus is on Mauritius.
• For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

Comair, which operates British Airways and Kulula in South Africa, has relaunched its holiday booking platform, with a keen focus on flights to, and stays in, Mauritius.

Local low-cost airlines are tapping into the holiday package market, looking to capitalise on the resumption of leisure travel as pandemic-induced restrictions ease. Over the past year, both FlySafair and LIFT have launched bespoke booking platforms that allow customers to arrange all-inclusive holiday packages.

Kulula holidays, part of the Comair Travel brand, is the latest booking platform to relaunch. The platform offers “dynamic packages”, which gives travellers greater control over their holidays by allowing them to bundle flights and select from a wide range of hotels.

“Under the restrictive conditions of the pandemic, we reinvented Kulula holidays so we could offer South Africans real savings and convenience when travel opened up. Finally, the outlook is positive, and we’re happy to relaunch kululaholidays.com,” said Deolinda Da Silva, the head of travel at Comair, in a statement on Tuesday.

Kulula’s holiday platform allows travellers to select their travel dates – showing all available flights serviced by either Kulula or British Airways – and choose their stay from a selection of hotels, resorts, and lodges.

Each section of the trip can be changed to suit the traveller’s preferences – down to the hotel room – and is not limited by pre-defined dates, prices, or products.

“Dynamic packages bring holiday bookers flexibility, affordability, and transparency they haven’t had before,” said Da Silva.

The platform has relaunched in collaboration with Move, an AI travel booking technology, which scans hotels and flights across different rate and date combinations in real-time. It then narrows down the various options and presents holiday packages that best fit the search criteria.

Kulula holidays offer packages in Cape Town, Durban, the Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls, Drakensberg, and more.

But its primary focus is on holidays in Mauritius. Since the lifting of Omicron restrictions in early January, Comair’s British Airways has doubled its flight frequency to Mauritius from Johannesburg. A third weekly flight is expected to be added in March.

Kulula holidays aims to be the “market-leading provider of Mauritius holiday packages”, which it says is the most-booked international destination.

Holiday packages in Mauritius currently listed by Kulula holidays, for two travellers sharing a single room, start from around R13,500 per person. That includes return flights and accommodation for a 7-day stay.

Citing the renewed interest in leisure travel to island destinations, Kulula holidays is also expected to add the Maldives to its list of international destinations “soon”.

(Compiled by Luke Daniel)