CT International Airport scoops Routes Africa Marketing Award

BlogDeBanderas via Wikimedia

The annual Routes Marketing Awards recognises excellence in airport marketing as nominated by the airlines, acknowledging and rewarding those airports which provide the best overall marketing services to them. As overall winner of the Routes Africa awards, Cape Town International Airport will be automatically shortlisted for their category at the World Routes Awards in Chengdu, China on 26 September 2016.

Cape Town International Airport, which is managed by the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), is the third largest airport in Africa and in 2015 approximately 9.7 million passengers passed through its premises, up from just over 8.7 million in 2014 ‒ a growth in overall passenger numbers of nearly one million passengers in a single year, making it the second busiest airport in South Africa and third busiest in Africa. This growth is expected to continue at a similar rate and will bring the airport through the 10 million passengers per year milestone.

Cape Town Air Access initiative

“This award is a testament to the growth initiatives at Cape Town International Airport and its association with Cape Town Air Access, a collaborative, multi-stakeholder team which has put strategic initiatives in place to promote, develop and maintain air routes in and out of Cape Town International Airport,” said general manager Cape Town International, Deon Cloete.

Notwithstanding recent economic performance and investment attractiveness of the region, there remains room for improvement of air access between the province and its global partners, and the Cape Town Air Access initiative was established to address this. The primary mandate of the Cape Town Air Access team is to achieve better air access in the Western Cape through the establishment of more non-stop flights to strategic markets, increasing non-stop connectivity to global and regional hubs, ensuring frequent flight schedules (a minimum of three to four times a week), anchoring year-round services to establish supply stability to key markets, and providing a more competitive landscape that reduces ticket prices.

“With Cape Town Air Access adding an additional 400,000 two-way direct seats to Cape Town since inception across the July 2015 to December 2016 period, this has contributed to the growth of Cape Town International Airport. In addition, direct air access routes into the Western Cape region assist in regional economic development and job creation,” said Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris.

In total, Cape Town Air Access has assisted in establishing five new routes and expanding three existing routes. “Scheduled air traffic movements at Cape Town International Airport totalled 79,551 in 2015, growing by 12% over the previous year. Domestic passenger numbers grew by 11%, while a noteworthy growth was seen in the regional numbers with a 19% growth and an international growth of 8%, compared to the prior year,” Cloete elaborated.