John Corse, general manager at fastjet, centre, collects the trophy from World Travel Awards senior vice president Chris Frost in Zanzibar

fastjet has won the title of Africa’s Leading Low-Cost Airline at the 23rd annual World Travel Awards held in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

The globally recognised World Travel Awards set out to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry.

The title of Africa’s Leading Low-Cost Airline, which is voted for by travel and tourism professionals and consumers worldwide, is in recognition of fastjet’s services of making air travel more affordable, safe and reliable across its pan-African network.

“Being recognised and accepting this award not only reflects our commitment to air-travel excellence, but the impact we endeavour to make on the African continent,” says Jai Gilbert, head of marketing at fastjet.

“We are immensely proud to receive such high industry recognition and fastjet will continue to make low-cost air-travel accessible to more people on the African continent.”

fastjet expects many of its passengers on the routes it services to be first time flyers who, because of prohibitively high fares, could previously not afford to travel by air.

Supporting this statement is recent research undertaken by the airline, showing that up to 40 per cent of passengers on all routes were first time flyers able to afford air travel for the first time, thanks to fastjet’s low fares.