Cape Town International Airport sees seasonal international airlines return
in time for the peak period with some increasing their weekly flights to the
City. The five international airlines, namely Condor, Edelweiss, Air France,
Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa have all commenced with their Cape Town route.
Condor Airways, which offers a nonstop flight from Frankfurt, Germany,
resumed its flights on 1 October and has increased its frequency from two
flights weekly to three. Edelweiss, which resumed on 7 October, has also
increased its weekly flights to three per week. The airport also welcomes back
Lufthansa Airline which connects Cape Town directly to Munich, Germany with its
five weekly flights resuming on 27 October. Air France resumed on 16 October
with Virgin Atlantic on 25 October. "The good news, not only for the airport but, for Cape Town, is Qatar newly
introduced direct flight between Doha and Cape Town. The airline is now
operating a daily direct flight to Cape Town as of 3 November," said Deborah
Francis, acting Communications Manager: Cape Town International Airport. The
peak season is on our doorstep and Qatar Airways is just in time to be part of
the busy season and service the tourists crowd coming down in the next couple of
months," said Deon Cloete, General Manager, Cape Town International Airport.
The inaugural non-stop flight was greeted with a traditional water salute
upon its arrival in Cape Town, and passengers on-board the flight were welcomed
by Qatar Airways team in South Africa and were presented with certificates to
commemorate the occasion. From December, the route will be operating with its
brand new, state-of-the art 787 Dreamliner aircraft which features 22 seats in
Business Class and 232 seats in Economy Class, and is equipped with the latest
interactive inflight entertainment system featuring over 1000 options available
in all cabin classes. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al
Baker said: "We are very pleased that we are now able to offer our passengers a
dedicated non-stop service between Doha and Cape Town. Cape Town has long been
one of the most popular destinations with passengers throughout our worldwide
network, and with the new services, we are now able to provide our customers
with quicker and more convenient connections to one of the most beautiful cities
in the world. We also look forward to our passengers from Cape Town experiencing
our five-star service as they fly with us non-stop to Doha and onwards to over
140 destinations." This is good news for the airport, the region and tourism business as our
summer season kicks in. We have just come out of the winter months with a
positive increase in arrival passenger numbers compared to the same period in
2013. We've seen our arriving passenger numbers for the months of June, July and
August increase by 4.3% compared to last year. Total passenger movement on the
International front for these three winter months also indicated good growth
with a 6.7% in arrival numbers. The winter season saw BA International, which
operates between Cape Town and London Heathrow, operates 10 weekly flights, thus
seven daily flights plus the extra three flights on Thursdays, Friday and
Sundays. BA is also set to increase its daily flights to three each day in the
2015 winter months," added Cloete. On the domestic front, the airport welcomed FLYSAFAIR which operates flights
between Cape Town and Johannesburg as well as George and Port Elizabeth. The
airline has 27 weekly flights to Johannesburg, seven weekly flights to George
and 13 weekly flights to Port Elizabeth "We've made a commitment that our fares will always be affordable, honest and
transparent, offering passengers genuine value on each and every one of our
flights from today onwards and making air travel more accessible to a greater
proportion of the South African population," said Dave Andrew, CEO of
FlySafair. Cape Town International Airport and its airport stakeholders take this
opportunity to welcome back all the seasonal flights to Cape Town. We look
forward to a long and fruitful working relationship. Continue to provide us with your feedback, visit www.airports.co.za. Airports Company South Africa „Ÿ Embracing Forward
Thinking. For more information please contact: Deborah Francis Head of
Department: Communications & Branding Telephone: +27 (0) 71 686
2740 Email: Deborah.Francis@airports.co.za |