Pan African development website Elicit Africa reports that in what is considered a major boost for tourism to South Africa’s Mother City, one of the fastest growing LCCs, Eurowings, announced it will be flying between Cologne and Cape Town from 5 November.
The announcement comes shortly after Eurowings, part of the Germany’s Lufthansa Group, also launched flights between Cologne and Windhoek in July this year (2017).
The once weekly flight – serviced with a A330-200 – will depart from Cologne on Sundays evenings and return from Cape Town on Monday evenings.
Initial pricing indicates fares to start from €480 return.
Elicit Africa quotes Tourism Update who spoke to icky Steinhardt, Product Manager of Pentravel. According to Steinhardt the new flights will “open up more affordable travel…previously clients had to fly via Frankfurt or Munich”, adding that she expected the routes to be filled quickly.
Cologne is near the borders of The Netherlands and Belgium, which means the new route to Cape Town will not only open up accessibility from the German market, but also from neighbouring countries. There are no longer direct flights from Belgium, and Brussels is only 216 km from Cologne.
Meanwhile SAA’s woes continues with Nedbank refusing to extend loans to SAA, citing chairlady Dudu Myeni’s continued presence at the beleaguered national carrier as one of the reasons.
Myeni should have left her post already – in line with her contract expiring – but will now continue to be SAA chair until November, City Press reports.
This has apparently angered Nedbank officials, who held a meeting with SAA and executives from Treasury to discuss further loans to SAA.
