Cape Town International Airport was named Africa’s Leading Airport for the second consecutive year running at the World Travel Awards Africa and Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony held in Durban last night.

Speaking to IOL, Cape Town International Airport Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs, Deidre Davids, said the airport is honoured to once again receive this accolade. “Being named Africa’s Leading Airport for the second year is extremely gratifying and reinforces the hard work and commitment to excellence demonstrated at this airport in the past 12 months,” she said.

The Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) also expressed its delight at being named among the some of the best in the world.

“Airports Company South Africa is delighted to be named among the travel sector’s top performers of 2018, with both O R Tambo International and Cape Town International airports also being nominated for the World’s Leading Airport 2018, which will be announced at the World Travel Awards Grand Final Gala Ceremony on 1 December 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal,” ACSA said in a statement. “Recognised across the globe as the ultimate independently assessed travel accolade, the World Travel Awards are voted for by travel and tourism professionals and consumers worldwide. The awards serve to recognise, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.”

The growth figures reported by ACSA reveal that Cape Town remains one of the top destinations in South Africa – the airport sustained a growth percentage of 5.3% year-on-year in 2017.

“Growth in international passengers has been in double digits for the past few years. The airport exceeded the 10 million passenger-per-year milestone for the first time in December 2016, which repeated again in December 2017 when passenger numbers significantly exceeded this mark,” ACSA said. “Through partnerships such as Western Cape Air Access the airport has seen 13 new routes and 18 route expansions since 2015. October marks the start of the peak season where its seasonal carriers start up their summer schedules. Cape Town International has already welcomed Edelweiss which connects the city to Zurich, Condor which connects the city to Frankfurt and Lufthansa with its Munich-to-Cape Town frequencies in operation.”

Cape Town International Airport is also anticipating a “bumper peak season” as the tourist season begins. “Our team is prepped and ready to welcome all of our visitors to the fairest Cape and to facilitate their movement through the airport en route to their holiday destinations.”

Picture: Twitter

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.