Wesgro launches Cape Town Air Access for trade, investment, and tourism benefit!

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Wesgro announced details on Thursday of its Cape Town Air Access division, which is to develop international air routes to and from the Western Cape. Cape Town Air Access is a joint collaboration between the Western Province Government, the City of Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa, Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro, and the private sector.

The Cape Town Air Access initiative will have the following mandate:

# Promote, develop, and maintain air routes in and out of Cape Town International airport

# Retain existing air routes

# Increasing the frequency and capacity of existing routes

# Attracting new airlines and routes.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille, and Airports Company of South Africa GM Deon Cloete on Thursday.

Mayor de Lille talked about her trip to Miami in 2011, to try to bring the direct flight between Miami and Cape Town back. Similarly she had visited Turkey with a delegation in 2012, and one had visited Cape Town in turn. The Mayor said that appeals to national government to give Cape Town more direct flights had not been effective, and that is why Wesgro is working on this opportunity of air access directly! She said that the perceptions about Cape Town must change, in that it is not just a tourist destination, but that ‘Cape Town is open for business too‘. Moody’s has given Cape Town good credit ratings. International tourism is vital, she added. She mentioned the example of the price difference between a Business Class ticket on BA and Ethiopian Airways is R55000! She thanked Ethiopian Airways for its confidence in flying directly to Cape Town. More connections are needed to other destinations in Africa, she said, as ‘Cape Town is the centre of ideas for Africa‘. She concluded that ‘Cape Town is a special place, there is only one of it in the world, due to the diversity of its people‘.

Cape Town International CEO Deon Cloete said that signing the Memorandum of Understanding is historic. He was proud of the 9% growth in passengers achieved at Cape Town International. Each new direct flight to/from Cape Town added will increase Business and Tourism income. Quality is critical, he said, and his organization ‘chases service quality relentlessly‘. A new runway project will go through an environmental approval process.

Wesgro will drive the collaboration, being the Western Cape Tourism, Trade, and Investment Promotion agency. Wesgro CEO Tim Harris said that the mission of Cape Town Air Access is to ‘connect the Cape to the economic opportunities of the world‘! He added: ‘The collaboration from all stakeholders has been key to the success of increasing Air Access in the province and in a very short space of time. DEDAT have commissioned comprehensive business cases on strategic routes to prioritise development, CoCT have proactively established key relationships with international stakeholders, ACSA Cape Town continue to foster an understanding of the traveller market through data analysis and interpretation and Cape Town Tourism has played an instrumental role in connecting relevant private sector partners to lobby for route development‘.

Harris also said that a frequent and reliable service must be guaranteed, and that the airlines have year-round business. Of the 13 non-stop direct flights to/from Cape Town International, only 5 are to Africa. He highlighted Dubai as a global hub, the U.K. as the biggest investor in our country, the Netherlands, and Namibia, as important flight destinations. The goal is to obtain air access to the USA, there being a huge opportunity to shorten the 30 hour journey from that country to Cape Town. Likewise access to China and Singapore is vital for the market from the East. The market in Kenya is also destined to grow. Cape Town lost direct flight connections to Buenos Aires, London, and Atlanta in the past few years.

Air access is seen as stimulating the sectors Wesgro represents, being international trade, foreign direct investment, and Tourism. Harris added that ‘By targeting strategic markets via the development of key air routes we can stimulate trade and investments that will make the Western Cape an even more competitive business location‘.

To date Cape Town Air Access has achieved the following in just six months, under the Project Management of Paul van den Brink, who comes from Holland, having 12 years experience in airport management in that country.

#. Ethiopian Airlines started a 6 times a week direct return flight from Addis Ababa. Two additional direct flights were added at the beginning of the month

#. Turkish Airlines connects Cape Town to Istanbul with a non-stop daily connection

#. KLM has announced that it will increase its frequencies to a year-round daily flight from Amsterdam, with increased international routes connecting Cape Town to major global hubs.

# A new SA Airlink flight 5 times a week to Maun in Botswana commences next month

# Thomas Cook is to operate 3 direct flights between Gatwick and Cape Town next summer

# Harris announced that two further ‘priority strategic markets’ will be made known soon.

Harris emphasized that conducting business in Africa gets easier if one has direct flights from Cape Town. Harris requested the citizens of Cape Town and the Western Cape to become ambassadors of Cape Town Air Access, and support its goals.

Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde concluded the presentation, by complimenting Cape Town International. He said that for air access to be successful, there must be demand for Cape Town business and tourism. It will grow our local economy, and that in turn will grow the number of jobs. His department is planning to create 100000 new jobs in the Western Cape in the next five years. Minister Winde thanked the airlines which were represented at the presentation on Thursday, including Comair, Lufthansa, Swiss, SAA, Taag, Condor, SA Airlink, Air Namibia, Singapore Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and British Airways.

Catering was done by Green Catering, and canapés represented the countries which the Cape Town Air Access division of Wesgro is working
with!