The Western Cape is benefiting from the Cape Town Air Access project, as reported by Wesgro in its Annual Review, with two new airlines, three new destinations and three route expansions.

The air access project was founded and is supported by the Western Cape Government, Wesgro, City of Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa, Cape Town Tourism, South African Tourism and the private sector.

The new airlines flying in to Cape Town are United Airlines, which began operating in December 2019, and Westair, which began operations in October 2020. United operates a New York-Cape Town service and Westair flies between Windhoek and Cape Town. Airlink has added a St Helena service.

The new flights add 44 000 two-way seats annually to the Cape Town route network, generating an estimated R165m (€9.1m) in direct tourism spending and 400 additional jobs in the province, according to Wesgro’s report.

The project saw success with the negotiated return of Virgin Atlantic Airways to the city, schedules will start by the end of 2020 with a seasonal Cape Town-London Heathrow service.

The team behind the project were also awarded the Overall Winner Award at the annual Routes Africa 2019 Awards ceremony in Mombasa for the second year in a row, with Cape Town International Airport being named best large airport in Africa.

Wesgro also reported that Cape Town International Airport showed 3% total passenger growth for the first 11 months of the 2019/20 financial year (April 2019-March 2020).