Launched today in East Africa, Tanzania-based Flyezee.com wants to be East Africa’s leading local flight comparison website with evolutionary but effortless, flight booking services.Flyezee.com compares domestic flights to help you find the best deal for your chosen destination. Once you’ve found your flight, you can pay for your ticket online and print off the ticket straight away. Flyezee.com is free to use and there are no hidden charges or booking fees.Flyezee.com’s development started in September 2013 and at its launch today has raised a total investment of 300,000,000Tsh (USD$180,000), personally funded by tech co-founders Matthew Bell and Bruce Hurd.
Flyezee.com can be traced back to 2003 when Matthew moved to East Africa to work at a Safari Company. In the ten years that followed, Matthew launched a series of successful East African tech start-ups, learned Swahili and fully immersed himself in the Tanzanian way of life. During this time Matthew had experienced all the pain points of flying locally in East Africa; inconsistent information, difficulty in finding routes or connecting flights and having to go via travel agents to buy tickets.
Meanwhile, Bruce’s passion for adventure and technology had seen him write his first game at age 13, leave New Zealand for London at 24, and grow his career into team leadership and software architecture roles working at leading firms such as NASDAQ Europe, ITV, ASOS.com and Just Eat. Bruce is also a trained aerobatics pilot, a student and mentor of personal transformation and a keen adventurer.
When they met in 2011 they immediately hit it off and in September 2013 saw an opportunity to apply leading edge technology and make a real difference to the way people fly in East Africa. Now with a local team in Tanzania, Flyezee.com aims to bring more people to more destinations, lower the cost of travel and make finding, comparing and booking local flights in East Africa as simple as possible.
Matthew and Bruce have plans to release exciting new features and rapidly expand the platform to other countries in East Africa whilst creating local jobs to help boost the technology and innovation prowess of the countries Flyezee.com operates in.
The founders says the site is a solution to those looking for weekend gateaways, business trips to another city or a family trip made easier by price comparison and a one-stop website for booking flights from a user’s computer or mobile phone.
“Our prices are exactly what the airlines would charge you. We do not add any booking or credit card fees to the total cost. We allow you to search and compare many of the domestic airlines in East Africa in real-time. You see the most up-to-date prices and availability,” they say on their site promising no more battling with traffic or driving for miles to book and collect your tickets.
“We are linked directly to the airlines reservation system so your booking is confirmed instantly. You then receive a link to print your ticket straight from your computer. The firm also processes your payment via its secure payment engine and accepts local and international VISA / Mastercards, and Mobile Banking payments with Airtel Money, M-Pesa and Tigo Pesa.
And in case you get stuck, you can call its dedicated customer care team, based in Tanzania in either Englich, Swahili or whatever so theyhelp you with whatever you may need whilst booking your tickets, including ticket amendments or cancellations.
The team says that for the first time it will be possible to compare prices online and book local flights from Coastal, Auric Air, Flightlink and Regional Air with more airlines coming online in Q3 2014, including Air Kenya and Air Excel.
With plans to launch in Kenya in the coming months, Flyezee sees itself as a job creator for teams that will serve customers. The site also aims to make connecting flights and routes automatically to save a users cost on time, agency or booking fees and via a mobile phone. Their largest competition are offline agencies and TravelStart which has presence across Africa and TicketSasa which recently expanded into flights and hotels tickets globally.
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