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Team KZN greatly boosts its drive for international air connectivity

Team KZN greatly boosts its drive for international air connectivity

Date: 2013-10-18
The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development & Tourism, Mr. Michael Mabuyakhulu, has concluded a successful mission at a global airlines conference in the United States America (USA), which the KwaZulu-Natal delegation - Team KZN - used to aggressively drive the positioning of King Shaka International Airport for direct international landings.

The MEC led a team of officials from the Department of Economic Development & Tourism, Dube TradePort Corporation, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Tourism, the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau, eThekwini Municipality and Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) to the 20th World Routes Development Forum (World Routes) in Las Vegas, USA.

World Routes is the global meeting place for airlines, airports, tourism boards and government stakeholders and attracts more than 3 000 delegates from in excess of 110 countries. The event is focused around the development of the world's air services and hosting World Routes provides a unique opportunity for a destination to showcase its airport, its city and its country to the air service decision-makers of the world.

KwaZulu-Natal used the event to hold a number of meetings with, among others, airlines, in a concerted effort to drive direct international routes into King Shaka International Airport.

"World Routes is of critical importance to KwaZulu-Natal as it affords us an opportunity to sell the Province and the airport to world airline leaders to give them a compelling reason to fly directly to Durban," commented MEC Mabuyakhulu.

This drive forms part of the Province's airlift strategy to strengthen KwaZulu-Natal's competitiveness for business and leisure tourists.

"We have made a number of strides in increasing international activity at King Shaka International Airport. For example, Emirates has daily flights, with Air Mauritius scheduled to fly three times a week.

"In addition, a partnership between Dube TradePort Corporation and SA Express has increased our activity within the SADC region, with flights from Lusaka and Harare to Durban respectively," added MEC Mabuyakhulu.

Key achievements for KwaZulu-Natal at World Routes 2013 included one-on-one meetings held with numerous airlines with the objective of increasing Durban's air connectivity, both in terms of passenger and cargo throughput. The team also met with a number of airports and tourism authorities to create strategic partnerships and to explore joint destination marketing opportunities.