Condor – the Thomas Cook-owned leisure carrier – touched down for the first time at Cape Town International Airport on November 4 to receive a traditional welcome by water cannons and a Cape minstrel band.
The inaugural flight from Frankfurt was delayed by about two hours because of repositioning delays after the aircraft had earlier experienced a slight technical problem in Turkey, according to Condor’s Head of Distribution, Matthias Koester. 
Condor will operate twice-weekly overnight flights on Sundays and Wednesdays until the end of April, providing more than 14 000 additional seats to Cape Town over the next six months. It uses a B767-300 with 270 seats in three classes: economy, premium economy and ‘Comfort’ (business) class.  Special inaugural fares to Cape Town start at R4 585 return, including taxes, and feeder flights to 60 destinations in Europe can be booked for a special fare starting from R1 125 (€100) one-way. 
The inaugural flight was 90% full and hopes are high for a good season ahead, according to Captain Tim Bernet, who piloted the flight. He said Condor was filling the gap left when Lufthansa canned its Frankfurt-Cape Town seasonal flight last year in favour of a new route from Munich to Cape Town.