Cape Town Air Access, a public-private initiative led by Western Cape trade, investment and tourism promotion agency Wesgro, is participating in the AviaDev Africa 2023 conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference, dedicated to increasing air connectivity within as well as to and from Africa, runs from tomorrow to Friday (June 14 to June 16).

Attendance at the event will allow the Cape Town Air Access project to interact, and share best practices with, more than 400 delegates from airlines, airports and other sectors of aviation, plus tourist agencies. It will also provide a platform for Cape Town Air Access to showcase its achievements and identify new routes as well as opportunities to increase the number of flights on existing routes to and from Cape Town.

“Our presence at AviaDev Africa 2023 underscores the project’s commitment to fostering sustainable air connectivity to Cape Town and the wider African continent,” affirmed Cape Town Air Access official spokesperson Wrenelle Stander. “Together with our project partners, Cape Town Air Access has consistently demonstrated its ability to achieve results.”

Over the 2022/23 southern hemisphere summer season (November to March), Cape Town International Airport saw the institution of four new direct routes and the start of services by three new airlines. This increased two-way passenger capacity by 200 000 over that period.

In 2022, two-way air passenger traffic between Cape Town and the rest of the continent grew by 80%, year-on-year. The top three African countries involved in this traffic were Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The Western Cape’s top unserved African destinations last year were Lagos, in Nigeria, and Lusaka, in Zambia.

“AviaDev is the ideal opportunity to expand Cape Town’s reach into the rest of Africa,” highlighted Cape Town Economic Growth MMC Alderman James Vos. “The city recognises aviation as a key pillar for our mission to realise a tourism-related job in every household in the metro. Cape Town International Airport witnessed a fantastic rebound in air travellers in the past year and through our campaigns and work with the Air Access initiative, we look set for even better growth in the months ahead.”