Johannesburg — A recent special offer by airline Kulula.com drew 8 million hits and 111 000 unique visitors to the site in only two days, says Kulula.com commercial director Gidon Novick.

"During the two-day sale, 55 000 seats were sold," he adds.

The airline's Web server was not affected adversely by the mass influx of visitors, because the site usually accommodates around 5 million page impressions on busy days, during which it can accommodate around 3000 visitors simultaneously, says Novick.

"The Web server, which usually runs at around 3-4%, was running between 60% and 70% at peak times during the sale," says Carl Scholtz, the IT executive manager at Kulula.com.

"So there were no problems there."

He says the volumes suggest the South African public now feels secure about online bookings. "People are not afraid to book online as long as there is value in it," says Scholtz.

"The percentage of people who book our air tickets online is around 60-65% and it has been for years, but the volumes are increasing on a whole," he adds.