Air Belgium plans to operate seasonal flights to SA
Cape Town Air Access has welcomed Air Belgium's plans to launch flights to Cape Town in September. The leisure-oriented Belgian airline is in the process of expanding its fleet to enable for the launch of new routes to South Africa, with Johannesburg and Cape Town being the carrier's only continental Africa flights.
In 2019, two-way international passenger volumes on the BEL-CPT route exceeded 35,000 passengers, amounting to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10% each year between 2015 and 2019. In addition, a total of 863 metric tonnes of air cargo was transported on the BEL-CPT route, representing a 52% recovery rate when compared to 2019.
In terms of exports, Belgium is the Western Cape’s 7th largest European export market, with R2.61bn worth of goods exported in 2021 (up 81.5% from 2020) while Brussels has historically been Cape Town’s second-largest unserved market and the largest unserved European market based on two-way international passenger volumes.
Western Cape minister of finance and economic opportunities, David Maynier says: "I welcome Air Belgium’s announcement to launch a triangular route between Brussels, Johannesburg and Cape Town as yet another signal of recovery for the Western Cape’s tourism and hospitality sector. Air Brussels focuses on leisure travel and shows that there is a clear uptick in demand for flights to Cape Town and the Western Cape, which is good for our economy and the creation of jobs in the Western Cape.
"I would like to congratulate the Cape Air Access team at the Western Cape government’s official destination marketing organisation, Wesgro, who continue to proactively and successfully engage with key tourism markets, taking advantage of pent-up traveller demand, to increase connections to the Western Cape."
