Cape Town Air Access – the award-winning air-route development project responsible for establishing direct flights that connect Cape Town and the Western Cape with the rest of the world – held their Annual Review Showcase yesterday.
The celebratory event was attended by key government partners, business stakeholders and airline professionals. They highlighted achievements over the last year, in the face of adversity caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic, and also prompted an important discussion about what it must do to ensure it builds on these successes in the future.
Wesgro CEO and spokesperson for Cape Town Air Access, Wrenelle Stander, said going into 2021 they understood that they were competing in the global race for routes against major destinations around the world.
“The reestablishment of 23 international routes signifies our position as a competitive and attractive destination. Cape Town Air Access, along with partners, remains committed to air route network recovery and contributing to economic recovery – which has been critical to the achievements we are seeing today. We are excited about the prospects of the coming year and the significance of greater air connectivity for the Western Cape’s global competitiveness,” she said.
Deputy Director-General for Economic Development and Tourism in the Western Cape and Cape Town Air Access co-chairperson, Rashid Toefy, said the recovery of the Western Cape economy has been the key focus since the beginning of the pandemic and securing non-stop direct flights to a set of strategic destinations across the world has been one of their main focus areas.
Highlights for the past year included:
- Flights to 11 out of 13 pre-pandemic African destinations have been re-established for Cape Town International Airport.
- The announcement that the AviaDev Africa route development conference 2022 will return to Cape Town for the third time from 29 June to 1 July, hosted by Cape Town Air Access, will welcome 250 route development representatives from 60 countries, including representatives from 40 airlines.
- Intercontinental flights to Cape Town are also at the forefront of more sustainable long-distance flights with almost 75% of carriers opting to operate new generation Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s into the destination.
“Collaborative efforts such as Cape Town Air Access are an important aspect of the future growth of the Western Cape economy. The reconnection of air connectivity and the steady recovery of travel is a testament of the impact of collaborative effort,” he said.
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Picture: Cape Town ETC gallery