More flights from the US mean more visitors and more visitors mean more jobs for the Western Cape, said Mireille Wenger, Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities in response to recent news that national Government has agreed, in principle, to increase the number of flights between South Africa and the United States from 21 weekly flights to a total of 23.
According to current the bilateral air service agreement, United States airlines are allowed to fly 21 weekly flights to South Africa. United States airlines currently fill 17 flights per week.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines had each requested an additional three frequencies to fly directly to Cape Town in particular.
To accommodate the airlines, the United States government approached the South African Department of Transport to request an additional two slots per week, taking the total allowed to 23 which, together with the remaining already allocated slots, would allow United and Delta to use an additional three flights per week.
Both airlines have publicly welcomed this tentative approval.
Wenger said the tourism, trade and investment relationship between the Western Cape and the United States continues to grow from strength to strength.
“For example the United States is one of the major source countries for international tourist arrivals to the Western Cape, with more than 134 000 American tourists arriving in the Western Cape in 2019,” she said.
Wenger continued: “As we welcome more flights, our objective is not only to recover to pre-pandemic levels, but to grow far beyond these figures so that we create many more economic opportunities in the province. “
To achieve this, Wenger said her department would continue to leverage the successful ‘Cape Town Air Access’ collaboration.
“We will boost our destination marketing at home and abroad, and we will tackle barriers that stand in the way of this sector’s growth. We will also continue to focus on our domestic tourism market which remains essential to the sustainability of our tourism and hospitality sector into the future,” she said.
