CAPE Town has gained
thousands of outbound seats
on new and expanded nonstop
services in the past
six months, thanks to Cape
Town Air Access, a division
of Wesgro dedicated to
expanding direct air routes.
Since February, Cape Town
Air Access has already
secured about 200 000
additional outbound seats for
the city. This follows at least
five new non-stop routes
and the expansion of four
direct services this year. Its
efforts have already earned
it a Routes Africa marketing
award.
Now the focus is on
establishing direct air links
with China, the Western
Cape’s seventh-largest
tourist source market and
the province’s seventh-largest
export market. Cape Town
Air Access project manager,
Paul van den Brink, will
travel to Chengdu next month
in an effort to find a direct
air access provider and to
attend the World Routes
Conference on September
24-27, as Cape Town Air
Access has been shortlisted
for the World Routes
Marketing Award.
A breakdown of numbers
shows that 70 000 seats
have been added to the
Dubai route, with Emirates
having upped its service
from two to three times daily,
and 55 000 will be added
to Istanbul when Turkish
Airlines starts flying daily
year-round in November.
Some 40 000 seats have
been added to Addis Ababa
after Ethiopian Airlines
increased its schedule
from two to four times a
week, plus four flights via
Johannesburg.
There are 15 000 more
seats to Amsterdam with
KLM now flying daily yearround,
and 5 000 seats will
be added to Frankfurt in
December when Lufthansa
starts servicing Cape Town
three times a week yearround.
Nairobi also sees the
same number of seats with
Kenya Airways’ thrice-weekly
flights, while another 5 000
seats are provided by Airlink,
with five services a week to
Maun. A further 5 000 seats
will be added when British
Airways starts thrice weekly
services to London Gatwick
in December.
