SAA is due to start its long-awaited direct service between Johannesburg and Beijing on September 1. The flight is sure to be well supported by both tourists and business people, particularly in view of South Africa’s new membership of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group.
Although it isn’t a formal trade bloc, a lot of South African companies are hoping our membership will lead to new opportunities and, in the meantime, tourism between this country and China took off some time ago and is likely to increase when there is a direct link instead of having to travel by way of Hong Kong, Singapore or even Europe.
Some people who have been to Shanghai – the commercial capital of China – think it is even more fascinating than Beijing and I’m told it’s a shopper’s paradise. Our minister of tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said a few days ago that he hoped SAA would soon include it too, in its network of routes. But even if, or when, it does, the route between Johannesburg and Hong Kong, which both SAA and Cathay Pacific Airlines fly daily, will probably continue to be busy.
Hong Kong is also an interesting destination in its own right, as well as a stopover for people flying on to other countries in the Far East. Many South African retailers import stock from factories in nearby Canton, as well as attending trade fairs in Hong Kong itself. Let’s hope there will also be direct flights to India – and to Brazil and Russia – from Cape Town in the foreseeable future. Our airport, which was judged both the best in Africa and the most improved in Africa by the Airports Council International, can accommodate twice as many flights as it has now.
It is attracting more, which will be in place within a few months. The latest to announce its arrival is Zambezi Airlines, which will start a service between Cape Town and Lusaka by way of Livingstone, on the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls, on June 30. There will initially be three flights a week – outward on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and return on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and there will be a bus service to take passengers who want to stay on the Zimbabwean side to the Victoria Falls resort. Passengers going on to Lusaka will not have to disembark in Livingstone. The airline will use three Boeing 737-500 aircraft, configured for 99 economy and 12 business class seats, on the route. Bookings are already being taken for flights until December 31. This flight will be particularly welcome since most Capetonians wanting to travel by air into other parts of Africa have to do so by way of Johannesburg.
That is, unfortunately, the case with new flights to Maputo and Gaborone which British Airways/Comair will start on Tuesday, May 3. But at least they will be from the smaller, more user-friendly Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs and not from the huge OR Tambo.
There will be daily return flights to both destinations from Monday to Friday, with double daily flights on some days. Comair has partnered with Solenta Aviation, a privately owned South African support services airline operating turbo-prop aircraft, on both the new routes. They will be flown with a 66-seater ATR -212 turboprop aircraft. Comair describes the new routes as “the first phase of expansion of our African network”.
It will compete on the route between Johannesburg and Maputo with 1Time, which started successful flights, attracting both South African and Mozambican passengers, late last year. At present 1Time flies from OR Tambo but it plans to move the Maputo flight to Lanseria.
Singapore Airlines, which flies into Cape Town, is now offering up-to-date text news headlines on its flight entertainment system – provided by Channel NewsAsia – so that passengers will not be out of touch with what is happening in the world.
Audrey.D’[email protected] - Weekend Argus