Both United Airlines and Delta Airlines announced their plans to expand their services to Cape Town.
United first launched flights to Cape Town in December 2019, and it quickly became one of the airline’s marquee international routes. As of the 5th of June 2022, United plans to increase their schedule by offering three nonstop flights per week, year-round, between New York/Newark and Cape Town International Airport, subject to government approval. The new schedule means that more than 85 U.S. cities – including places like Chicago, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles – will be more conveniently connected to Cape Town.
This expanded service also strengthens United’s leading network from New York/Newark. United offers service to 74 international destinations from New York/Newark. In 2022, the airline will introduce new service to additional international destinations including Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Azores, Portugal; Bergen, Norway; Tenerife, Spain and Nice, France.
Delta Airlines on the other hand, hopes to expand their current offering with a Cape Town/Atlanta route and has submitted an application to the US Department of Transportation for a three times weekly service between Atlanta and Cape Town, with hopes to begin the Atlanta-Cape Town service on 18 November 2022. If approved, the standard round trip from Atlanta to Cape Town would be the airline’s second destination in South Africa, after Johannesburg, which it already serves from Atlanta.
“Over the past decade, the US has been the largest source of FDI by value into Western Cape – R19.68 Billion. The US remains a key tourism and export market for South Africa.
For the first time, the US was the number one country for Western Cape exports in 2021. We are looking forward to welcoming both United Airlines and Delta Airlines to the Mother City, and we are confident that these flights will boost the province’s efforts to grow leisure tourism and help increase trade between the Cape and the US. This will contribute to growing exports, and attracting investment,” concluded Official Air Access Spokesperson and Wesgro CEO, Wrenelle Stander.
