SA Tourism joins Cape Town Air Access to further boost international routes

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Cape Town Air Access is a partnership, based at Wesgro, between the Western Cape Government, the City of Cape Town, Airports Company of South Africa, Cape Town Tourism and now South African Tourism, and is the focal point for international air route development in the Western Cape.

Wesgro CEO Tim Harris says: “South African Tourism joining Cape Town Air Access is another national vote of confidence in the initiative and we look forward to SAT’s contribution.”

Since its launch in 2015 Cape Town Air Access has landed nine new routes and facilitated ten route expansions for the Cape. This has increased Cape Town International Airport’s (CTIA) capacity by over 600,000 seats which last year helped the airport reach the 10 million passengers per year mark for the first time.

International traffic at CTIA was up by 27% between January and March this year, and the airport is expecting two million more international passengers this year than it processed in 2016. Cape Town Air Access has already secured new routes to Victoria Falls and Cologne as well as the expansion of Air France’s Paris route this year to help CTIA reach its ambitious goals.

Air access critical to the successful development of destinations

This increased air access will also make a significant impact on jobs and growth as 3,000 jobs are supported by each regularly scheduled long-haul flight, and for every 10% increase in passenger numbers, the regional economy grows by 2%.

“Air access is critical to the successful development of destinations, thus SAT is delighted to collaborate with the Cape Town Air Access team and will work closely to ensure South Africa’s status as a preferred destination to the world,” said SAT CMO Margie Whitehouse.

"The increase in the frequency of flights and creation of more direct flights is a key driver of economic development in our city. This has a catalytic impact on all of our key sectors. It is for this reason that we fund air access and appreciate all hands on deck to grow the number of direct flights to its full potential. The addition of SA Tourism is most welcome and we look forward to collaborating with them so that we can bring more flights, more investment, more tourism and in turn jobs for our people," said Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille.

Minister of Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde, said: “We are delighted to welcome South African Tourism to the Air Access team. SAT brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in reaching strategic markets and will be a key partner in continuing to improve access to the Western Cape. As part of our Project Khulisa economic strategy, we identified improving air access as a catalyst for growth in the tourism sector. Since launching the Air Access initiative, we have achieved significant progress in improving air access, as seen in the number of new routes and expansions. An increase in air access has an important economic impact, adding jobs to our tourism sector. I am looking forward to working with SAT to continue building on this momentum.”