The carrier, in which easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou is a major shareholder, reported a $48 million deficit for the calendar year 2016, compared to a loss of $21.9 million in 2015. Revenue rose from $65.1 million to $68.5 million.

A management shake-up last year saw the appointment of Nico Bezuidenhout as chief executive in August. He joined from a similar role at Mango Airlines, South African Airways’ budget brand, and has begun a cost-cutting programme, including a transition to smaller aircraft, route rationalisation and moving the head office to Johannesburg.

Since the year-end, fastjet has also received a $28.8m cash injection from aircraft leasing firm Solenta in return for a 28% stake.

Bezuidenhout described 2016 as “a challenging year”, adding that “these financial results reflect not only a difficult market place but also the overly optimistic expansion plan adopted in early 2015”.

He added that a Stabilisation Plan introduced in the second half of 2016 had seen fastjet withdraw from a number of loss-making routes and remove surplus capacity. “Between July and December, capacity was reduced by 25%, passenger numbers were only down by 3% and revenues rose by 5%,” he said.

He added: “The strong progress we have made means that fastjet’s cost base will be significantly reduced by the third quarter of 2017 and that we are well on the way to fulfilling our baseline aim of achieving a cash flow break even position by the fourth quarter of 2017.”