Johannesburg, Tuesday 28th March 2023: Today, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and the O.R. Tambo International Airport announced more measures to return Africa’s busiest airport to pre-pandemic levels both in terms of passenger numbers and operational efficiency and excellence. ACSA’s Regional Manager Cluster 1 Jabu Khambule allayed fears of any jet fuel supply shortage while announcing further measures to get the airport to full operation with customer centric security, cleanliness, and ease of movement as top priority.
Khambule announced that a total of 46 airlines are now flying through O.R. Tambo international and that comprises of five domestic airlines, 38 international airlines and three regional airlines. New airlines include Air Belgium, Air Cote d’Ivoire, Chilean Latam Airline, Air Algierie as well as Eswatini Air. SAA added two new routes to Windhoek and Victoria Falls and FlySafair will resume flights to Zanzibar in April.
One of challenges ACSA identified last year December was the parking system which needed a system upgrade and in a phased approach, the aging system has been replaced to ensure the parking process remains reliable and efficient for passengers.
The Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA) which serves as a coordinating agency for the Gauteng Air Access Network (GAAN) – a multi-disciplinary team of agencies working together to improve the province’s airlift capacity – welcomes the latest developments and pleasing announcement made by ACSA today. We are excited and encouraged by this great news and development which comes at the backdrop of equally pleasing international and domestic arrival figures covering the end of the year and the festive summer period. “Full and exceptional operation of OR Tambo International Airport, the country’s flagship and national key point, is central to our economic recovery and jobs agenda in Gauteng and South Africa at large”, emphasized GTA Chief Executive Officer Sthembiso Dlamini.
A functional national and continental airport is not just a transit channel for passengers and cargo. It is an economic ecosystem supporting hundreds of sub-sectors including logistics, freight, courier, transport, food and broader trade and investment elements. Over the weekend, the golden city region of Gauteng welcomed into O.R. Tambo International the maiden eSwatini Air, in support of our efforts to connect the region by air.
Tomorrow Wednesday 29th March 2023, Gauteng will further welcome Air China from Beijing-Shenzhen to Johannesburg marking a significant milestone as the first flight group tours out of China since the pandemic starting in 2021. This will surely power the country’s trade, tourism, and investments prospects from one of our key source market and fellow BRICS member. South Africa is among the first 20 destinations to which China will send group tours and this bodes well for the country’s economic recovery and job creation efforts.
“We are very much excited by these latest developments as the GTA because this is in line with the city region’s tourism growth, trade development and investment facilitation strategy and plan championed by Premier Panyaza Lesufi. Despite the unfortunate loss of Comair last year, over 77% of flights that used OR Tambo International Airport pre Covid pandemic times are now back and oiling our growth plans,” reiterated Dlamini.
All this great work and exciting developments can be attributed to the collaborative nature of the role-players in the Gauteng Air Access Network who continues to work tirelessly to firstly reinstate the lost routes due to Covid restrictions, attract and retain new air routes and the building of a solid pipeline of potential routes covering cargo, passengers and special permits for film crews and charter market flights.
____________________________________________________________________________
Enquiries: Barba Gaoganediwe, Spokesperson Gauteng Tourism
0834467844
@Barba_G74 on twitter
124 Main Street, Marshalltown, Johannesburg
