How many tickets did FlySafair sell in its R8 sale?

Last week, local airline FlySafair trended on social media as it launched its R8 sale. But how many tickets did the airline sell as part of the sale?

According to the airline, it released over 30 000 tickets at R8 — including airport taxes. This follows a two-year hiatus for the airline’s annual sale.

The sale, which took place on 4 May, applied to tickets up until the end of October 2022. According to the airline, by the time the sale closed shortly after 6pm, a total of 31 713 seats were sold for R8.

However, a total of 1.7 million users had visited the site during the sale — meaning that many users didn’t luck out.

So how were those who received R8 tickets chosen? FlySafair notes that waiting room doors opened at 7am on the day of the sale. From 9am, randomly selected customers got access to the site.

At its peak, the waiting room had 1.07 million concurrent users waiting.

“We’ve learnt a lot over the years since we ran our first sale in 2015 when we sold tickets at R1. Being wiser and more experienced, we’ve invested a great deal in our IT infrastructure and have introduced features like the waiting room to maintain order,” Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair, said in a statement.

“We’ve also included a random selection process that helps to ensure that access to the ridiculously cheap tickets is fair.”

Some of those who were able to cash in on the offer shared their success on social media. However, other users criticised the process.

In previous years, the sale faced technical issues as users flocked to the website. However, the waiting room system seems to have eased some of the technical issues faced during the sale.

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Feature image: FlySafair