Increasingly, both international and regional airlines are using OR Tambo International Airport as their preferred gateway into South Africa and the rest of Africa. This bodes well for the visitor economy in Gauteng, the centralisation of services, and in active route development to increase tourism, trade and investment flows into the province’s ailing economy.

The good news for the golden province of Gauteng is that, from tomorrow (June 29), Air Côte d’Ivoire will commence its maiden service into Johannesburg.

Eswatini Airways will debut in July, Air Belgium is scheduled to start flights to Johannesburg in September, while Condor will start flights from Frankfurt in November. Furthermore, Qantas will introduce its Perth to Johannesburg flights in November. This all adds much-needed airlift capacity to drive economic recovery and sector development, especially from Gauteng’s key regional and international source markets.

“We are very excited by these latest developments as Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA) because this is in line with the city region’s tourism growth, trade development and investment facilitation strategy, and aligns with the plan announced by Gauteng Premier David Makhura in his State of the Province address earlier this year,” explained GTA Chief Executive, Sthembiso Dlamini.

“Despite the unfortunate loss of Comair recently, over 70% of flights that used OR Tambo International Airport prior to the pandemic are now back and fuelling our growth plans,” she added.

According to the GTA, these exciting developments can be attributed to the collaborative nature of the roleplayers in the Gauteng Air Access Network, who continue to work tirelessly to not only reinstate the lost routes but attract and retain new air routes and build a solid pipeline of potential routes covering cargo, passengers and special permits for film crews and charter market flights.

The Gauteng Air Access Network comprises public- and private-sector stakeholders, led by representatives of the Gauteng Tourism Authority, the Gauteng Growth & Development Agency (GGDA), Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), City of Ekurhuleni, as well as private airport facilities.

This team will be actively participating and presenting the case for destination Gauteng and its proximity and capacity to connect the African region at this year’s AviaDev platform in Cape Town, held from June 29 to July 1.  

Visit: https://gauteng.net