South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, wants South African Airways to re-establish its direct route between South Africa and India.

Ramaphosa, who said his government was ready to work at re-establishing the route, made the announcement during a round-table discussion with business leaders and government officials from both South Africa and India on Saturday (January 26).

Sisa Ntshona, CEO of South African Tourism, said he was fortunate to be part of the delegation to India. “The key thing there was around increasing trade between the countries. Tourism was front and centre – both the business side as well as the leisure tourism side.” 

During his visit, Ramaphosa said: “I really don’t know why this (route) was ever cancelled, and why the flight to Mumbai was persistently under attack to be taken away from SAA, but we will bring it back.”

Speaking to Tourism Update on the possibility of re-establishing the route, Ntshona said: “We certainly do have commitment to bring it back. I have also been in discussions with my counterpart at SAA, and we are looking at different modalities as to how we are going to bring that back and how we are going to work together to make sure we fill up those seats.

“It is not a matter of ‘if’, but a matter of ‘when’ we are going to bring back that route, because India is important for us (SA),” added Ntshona.

Derek Hanekom, South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, told Tourism Update: “I support President Ramaphosa’s statement that says: ‘We would like nothing better than to see SAA having a direct flight to India once again’. As the South African tourism sector, we are excited by this comment, as we believe that a direct flight between Johannesburg and Mumbai will have a huge impact on increasing tourist numbers from the Indian market.”

According to Hanekom, India is one of the fastest growing outbound markets, second only to China, and is estimated by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to increase from 35 million in 2017 to 50 million by 2020. “I am confident that, as we work towards removing the barriers to entry into our beautiful country, the potential for growth is exponential – SA offers the international tourist the full package, and with relationships being built with countries such as India, we are placing ourselves on an exciting tourism growth trajectory.”

Ntshona shared Hanekom’s sentiment regarding the removal of barriers: “We have been consistently communicating to our country, the Presidency, and to the ministers, that we do have the capacity as a country to reach or double the number of jobs in tourism; we do have the capabilities to absorb those numbers; however, what we are entreating them to do is to give us the enabling environment that allows that to happen.”

Firstly, Ntshona says visas and barriers should be removed. Alternatively he recommends: “Put in place user-friendly visas that are easily accessible, predictable, and have a very quick turnaround time.”

Lastly, he emphasised the importance of connectivity: “There is a definite correlation there that when you have direct flights your numbers tick up immediately.”

In April 2015, the route was cancelled with allegations pointing to the Gupta family who influenced state and subsequently SAA into relinquishing the route to Indian airline, Jet Airways.

Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises said: “There was a direct route; it was stolen from South Africa.”