Regional tourism authority Cape Town Routes Unlimited says this is “the best summer ever” for tourists from overseas, following last year’s disappointing tourism season, and figures released by Airports Company, South Africa (Acsa) bear this out.
The holiday season started early, in November, when passenger numbers grew at our state-owned airports by 12 percent compared with the previous year. They continued to grow by 17 percent in both December and January. They had reached 9.2 million by the end of January and our airport is still busy, says Deidre Davids, Acsa head of communications.
Most of this increase was at Cape Town and Durban airports. A large part of the increase in Durban was due to hosting the international conference on climate change in November.
Part of the increase in Cape Town was due to the new services by Air France and Swiss airline Edelweiss, and the return of flights by Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic Airways, both of which withdraw during our winter. Hopefully, if they have done well here this summer, one or both of them will reconsider withdrawing this winter since the Cape Town International Convention Centre has a busy programme of conferences and other events expected to bring thousands of delegates here.
A new on-line site launched by the Star Alliance of international airlines, to which SAA belongs, enables convention organisers to inform delegates of travel options, and allows delegates to complete their travel arrangements on-line.
New fleet in pipeline
SAA is preparing to order a new fleet to enable it to compete effectively against other airlines, most of which have ordered new generation aircraft using at least 20 percent less fuel per passenger and causing less pollution. It is still negotiating with the government, its sole shareholder, for recapitalisation to enable it to do so and hopes for between R4 billion and R6bn.
Siza Mzimela, its chief executive, said many other airlines have called on their shareholders to finance the acquisition of new aircraft since the price of oil is almost certain to stay above $100 a barrel.
Discussing SAA’s plans, she told pilots and union representatives that it was intended to replace the short-haul fleet of leased Boeing 737-800s with Airbus A320s which would result in savings on training and maintenance because they had identical controls and used the same parts as the airline’s existing A319 and A320 fleet. - Weekend Argus