Exciting news for Cape Town’s business and tourism sectors, two African Airways, who have recently started flying into Mother City plan on expanding these routes.
Kenya Airways and Rwanda Air offer travelers Cape Town flights, as this has clearly become a need for both business and tourism sectors. Kenya Airways launched their non-stop direct flight on June 6, this new service adds to their already existing 3 flights a week from Nairobi to Cape Town via Victoria Falls, and four flights per week from Livingstone.
Rwanda Air launched their first flights to Cape Town in May this year, offering four flights a week service via Kigali and Harare.
At the Aviation Development Conference held in Cape Town on Wednesday, Wesgro CEO Tim Harris announced that the team at Cape Town Air Access assisted four African couriers namely, TAAG Angola Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and RwandAir, to bring their operations to the Mother City since 2015.
“Eight new destinations have connected to Cape Town, adding 400 000 seats over the past three years,” said Harris.
In terms of passenger traffic to Cape Town, the top ranking areas in 2017 were, Namibia, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Following closely behind were Angola, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.
“We are transitioning from a tourist hub to a business hub. The routes we developed have unlocked the potential of the city and are connecting us deeply to our continent. This in-turn has attracted 250 delegates from across the globe,” he said.
TAAG also added another flight to Cape Town and now fly to the city four times a week. Air Mauritius will be adding a third flight in October this year and SA Airlink has also increased the size of their aircraft traveling to Cape Town from a 32-seater to a 83-seater. They have plans to introduce a business class to their Cape Town to Maun, Botswana and Cape Town to Victoria Falls services.
Harris noted that passenger growth had increased by 17% in 2016 and 20% in 2017, while there has been “phenomenal” growth in air cargo. A total of 21 airlines now fly into Cape Town from 25 different destinations and the market continues to grow.
With plans in the pipeline to expand links with Asian Airlines, as well as Austrian Airlines, the growth for the Mother City’s tourism and business sectors is expected to be exponential and highly beneficial to the City’s economy. Despite being in our third year of drought the Mother City continues to grow.
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