Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Friday highlighted the close interrelationship between the tourism and airline industries. She was delivering the keynote address at the 2022 Annual General Assembly of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa, being held in Kleinmond, southeast of Cape Town.

She pointed out that both sectors in South Africa currently found themselves at a critical time and juncture. “The travel and tourism sector was almost decimated by Covid,” she said.

Both sectors were now recovering from the pandemic. Tourism was again creating jobs in South Africa; workers in the sector had been “severely affected” by Covid-19 and the restrictions imposed to try and contain it.  But the country needed the recovery in both sectors to “lift-off”, she affirmed.

She noted that, on Thursday, her department had held talks with the local airline industry to see how it could assist South African airlines to “get back on their feet”. (The Department of Tourism was not responsible for airlines; they fell under the purview of the Department of Transport.) Those talks had brought home to the Department of Tourism the problems and challenges currently facing South African airlines. “We are resolute in making sure that we can assist our aviation industry.”

The domestic sector had led the recovery in the South African airline industry, but was currently experiencing volatility. Overall air passenger transport capacity was still below 2019 levels, she observed. And the Competition Commission had, following the collapse of the Comair group, appealed to the surviving airlines not to exploit passengers.

Her department was seeking to understand the country’s domestic air travel market. “We’ve had a significant supply shock,” she highlighted. Air traffic in South Africa was barely at 25% of its level in 2019. The market was not in a position to recover naturally. “We are really going through a bad patch in this industry.”

An issue within the country and region was that, because of the lack of airline seats, many people were choosing to drive, creating serious road safety concerns. Getting people flying again would lead to the recovery of the tourism sector and grow the economy. And tourists were a “notable” demand source for airlines.

“We are undergoing strain in our airline industry,” she pointed out, in a media conference which followed her address. “We are very concerned about how we keep our airlines in the air, especially approaching the holiday season. Our tourism recovery plan is heavily dependent on the airlines.”