Cape Town Air Access received the prestigious Overall Winner Award for the second consecutive year at the annual Routes Africa 2019 Awards ceremony in Mombasa, Kenya on 09 December 2019.
Cape Town won three awards during the ceremony, including:
· Cape Town International Airport – Best Airport in Africa in the 4-20 million passenger category;
· Cape Town Air Access – Destination Marketing award; as well as Overall Routes Africa award.
Cape Town Air Access is a partnership between the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government, Airports Company South Africa, Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro and South African Tourism, and is supported by Naspers, Tsogo Sun, Investec, Oasis Holdings, and the Leeu Collection.
This unique public-private collaboration’s key objective is to land more direct routes into Cape Town International Airport.
“Underpinning Cape Town International Airport’s exceptional growth has been the Cape Town Air Access (CTAA) collaboration, which is increasingly being recognised as a success formula to be replicated by other regions. We consider the initiative to be a blueprint, not only for SA, but for the African continent. As the industry moves closer toward Open Skies, this type of collaboration is the future for any airport, and country, wanting to be competitive,” says Airport Manager, Deon Cloete.
There has been a key focus on the African market for the Cape Town Air Access, with the initiative assisting in bringing five new African airlines and eleven new African destinations into the network, resulting in a capacity increase of 450 000 African seats.
The African passenger market grew by 4% during the first eight months of 2019, with business class passengers showing exceptional growth of 16% during the same period.
“We are proud of Cape Town Air Access. What Cape Town Air Access has shown is that expanding air connectivity can expand opportunity for people, and expanding opportunity for people, can give hope to people by creating jobs in the Western Cape. Through their efforts to land more routes to Cape Town, they have provided a major boost to the Cape economy,” said David Maynier, Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities Western Cape.
Routes Africa is the longest standing aviation forum, bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities. Nominated and judged by airline network planners, the annual Routes Africa Awards are highly regarded in the aviation industry for recognising excellence in the route development.
“The City of Cape Town is proud to be involved in an initiative that showcases the tremendous value of public-private partnerships, which is why we recently allocated additional funding towards this project. Given the significance of landing more flights that will ultimately translate into more economic opportunities for our city, and in turn more jobs for locals. This project unlocks the full potential of our aviation economy, and more importantly connects the city to the rest of the African continent and beyond. I am very proud of what this collective initiative has achieved” said, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, Alderman James Vos.
The contenders for the airport and destination awards were as follows:
Airport – 4-20 Million Passengers
Algiers – Houari Boumedienne Airport
Cairo Airport
Cape Town International Airport
Casablanca Mohammed V Airport
Tunis–Carthage Airport
Destination Marketing
Cape Town Air Access
Durban Tourism
Mauritius Ministry of Tourism
Moroccan National Tourist Office
Rwanda Tourism Board
“The Cape Town Air Access team has made big strides into achieving its mandate and since its inception in 2015, the unit has succeeded in landing 16 new routes, and 22 route expansions, adding over 750,000 one-way seats into the airport. It is estimated that the additional routes have helped contribute an additional R6 billion in tourism spend to the Cape’s economy,” concluded Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro.
