South African online travel company, Travelstart, has announced the launch of their new online bus booking platform. The online platform, which is an extension of Travelstart's online travel platform, will allow customers to compare bus tickets from competing companies and serving the cheapest fare for a return or one-way route within South Africa, or to neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and others.

What makes the platform suitable for its customers is also that apart from being able to pay online by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) at the time of booking, customers can also make payment at Pick n Pay stores in person across South Africa.

“We’re really excited to bring a quality bus booking platform to the market. For 13 years, air travel has been our focus, but bus transport also fits with our mission to make all modes of travel simpler and more accessible for everyone,” said Jerome Touze, Managing Director at Travelstart.

Landing page of Travelstart's online bus booking platform in South Africa.

According to Travelstart, the most popular route for South African bus travellers is Johannesburg to Durban. Regionally, within Southern Africa, the most in demand route is Johannesburg to Harare, Zimbabwe.

Given how minibus taxis and busses are among the most popular forms of long distance travel across Southern Africa, the new platform is likely to be welcome by regular travellers as it offers the option to compare prices in one place.

“This is the first development to follow our acquisition by Travelstart. The power of the Travelstart brand coupled with the convenience of paying at Pick n Pay will make travel simple for exciting new markets,” said Rian Bornman, Managing Director at FlightSite Managing Director, a company that's a Travelstart technology partner.

The online bus booking platform lets customers search, book and pay for bus travel from numerous suppliers such as Greyhound, Eldo Coaches, Citiliner and Intercape. Customers can book tickets for up to ten passengers in a single booking and can filter search results by bus company, coach class and price.