Cape Town City expands air connectivity into Africa

Africa airlines have recently upgraded aircrafts and increased frequency to accommodate the high demand. Kenya Airways has launched non-stop flights to Cape Town, which is in line with the airline strategy to expand connectivity across Africa. The three weekly non-stop flights to Cape Town will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, bringing the number of weekly flights to Cape Town to 10. The airline already operates four weekly flights via Livingstone, Zambia and three weekly flights via Victoria Falls Zambia.

RwandAir has also upgraded to a bigger aircraft type between Kigali, Harare and Cape Town just one month after launching the route. Rwanda’s national carrier began flying the route four times a week on May 16 using a 75-seater Bombardier CRJ900 regional jet. RwandAir country manager, Thembela Dladla confirmed the upgrade to a 154-seater B737-800 comes into effect on June 15 in response to demand and will remain in effect until the end of August, at which stage a possible extension will be re-evaluated depending on demand.

Speaking at the AviaDev Aviation Development Conference in Cape Town, Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris said Cape Town was experiencing strong demand for air services from across West, East and Southern Africa. Its top five fastest-growing destinations in Africa are Walvis Bay, Victoria Falls, Mauritius, Maun and Dakar (the last currently not served non-stop). The top five un-served destinations in Africa from where significant demand is being received include Lagos, Maputo, Lusaka, Accra and Dar es Salaam.

Harris said since the inception of Cape Town Air Access three years ago, four new African airlines have connected to Cape Town: Ethiopian Airlines, TAAG Angolan Airlines, Kenya Airways and RwandAir, providing eight new destinations across the continent: Addis Ababa, Harare, Kigali, Livingstone, Luanda, Maun, Nairobi and Victoria Falls. This represents 400 000 two-way seats out of Africa, representing one-third of the total seat count added over the past three years.