Cape Town Air Access on Monday highlighted that, within a matter of weeks, two more African airlines will be flying to and from Cape Town International Airport. Cape Town Air Access is an initiative that is led by the Western Cape province’s Wesgro investment, trade and tourism promotion agency.

The two new carriers that will serve the airport are Eswatini Air and Proflight Zambia. Eswatini Air is its country’s official national flag carrier, while Proflight Zambia is that country’s biggest airline and so de factor flag carrier. Together, they will increase the number of African airlines serving Cape Town to six, the number of African countries directly connected to the city to 11, and the number of other African destinations it can access to 15.

Eswatini Air will commence its Cape Town route on June 2. It will operate this direct service three times a week.

Proflight Zambia will start its direct connection between Lusaka and Cape Town on July 1. This will be operated twice a week.

“More connections mean more tourists and more tourists mean more jobs for the residents of the Western Cape,” highlighted Western Cape Finance and Economic Opportunities Minister Mireille Wenger. “Which is why I am so pleased that we have secured two more direct routes to Cape Town International Airport, especially since these new routes make it much easier to travel within Southern Africa. The benefits of these two routes to Eswatini and Lusaka, Zambia, go beyond tourism and may open up more opportunities for trade and investments too.”

Between 2021 and 2022, two-way air passenger traffic between Cape Town and other African cities jumped by 80% (year-on-year). The top three African countries, in terms of two-way passengers, were Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The top five (in terms of seat capacity) African airlines serving Cape Town were Ethiopian Airlines, Airlink (a South African carrier), Kenya Airways, TAAG Angolan Airlines and RwandAir.

“Since 2015, the Cape Town Air Access initiative has produced excellent results when it comes to creating new routes and growing the number of people coming into the Western Cape,” pointed out Wesgro CEO and Cape Town Air Access spokesperson Wrenelle Stander. “In doing so, the initiative has also played a significant role in developing trade relations and growing tourism in the destination as air connectivity is key to unlocking a country’s economic growth potential.”

Last year, the rest of Africa was the Western Cape’s number one export market, with a value of R59.9-billion. In second place was Europe (R56.4-billion), followed by Asia (R40.7-billion).