Turkish Airlines will soon be the third international airline to launch flights to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport.
Ibrahim Ethem Ozdemir, Turkish Airlines Commercial Manager, told Tourism Update the airline planned to introduce flights to Durban from October.
Earlier this year, the airline announced it would split its IST-JNB-CPT-IST route from October 26, offering daily flights to both Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Johannesburg route would be linked with Maputo in Mozambique, with a three times weekly onward connection. Ibrahim said this would double the present capacity on the South African route, supporting the high demand from travel agents and travellers.
The Durban travel industry has welcomed the announcement of the new flight. Dinesh Naidoo, Group Operations Director of Serendipity Worldwide Group, says the new international connection will increase much-needed competition on the Durban route. “We are really excited about the announcement of a third international carrier to Durban, especially as Turkish Airlines offers very good connections into Europe.”
Durban will host the aviation event, World Routes 2015, from September 19-22 this year. “The KwaZulu Natal province has participated in past World Routes events and, based on our analysis, we have seen how air services have expanded to cities that have hosted these events. It is, therefore, our plan to leverage on the hosting of World Routes 2015 to help grow airlift out of King Shaka International Airport, the host airport for this event,” said KZN MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Michael Mabuyakhulu.
Just last month, Qatar Airways announced plans to launch four new weekly flights to Durban (via Johannesburg), starting December 17. Emirates is currently the only international airline flying to the city.
