The Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism says growing tourism is one of the factors influencing its Air Access strategy. Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, says the strategy aims to improve Cape Town’s competitiveness and will focus on routes into Africa.

The strategy, which was developed over the past few years in collaboration with Acsa and Accelerate Cape Town, is based on research that shows increased air access between Cape Town and strategic locations could create 3 950 jobs and generate R392 million for the local economy.

Last week, Alan announced that the Department would be negotiating with airlines to establish direct flights between Cape Town and Luanda, Angola.

He told Tourism Update, that the province was also investigating the establishment of direct air routes between Cape Town and Nigeria and Ghana. “We have purposely selected destinations with high business and leisure tourism opportunities,” he said.

According to Alan, improved air access draws increased economic activity to the destination, including tourism. “The power of direct flights is clearly demonstrated by visitor numbers. There are direct international flights between Cape Town International Airport and Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Mauritius and Namibia. In 2012, 227 149 visitors flew between Cape Town and Germany and 93 659 visitors flew between Cape Town and The Netherlands. These figures show us that direct flights do matter.

“As a long-haul destination we need to go the extra mile to ease travel times for passengers and direct flights play a key role in achieving this.”