by DION HENRICK
CAPE TOWN – AN airline will debut flights to Cape Town while two others will expand their services to the South African city in the coming months.
LATAM Airlines, the Chilean-headquartered largest airline operator in Latin America, will commence its inaugural service on July 1. LATAM will introduce three weekly flights direct to Cape Town from Sao Paulo, on a B787-9.
It recently hosted a trade event to showcase the upcoming direct route.
Wesgro, which provided the update, stated the Cape Town service formed part of LATAM’s broader network expansion, strengthening connections across more than 60 destinations within Brazil and growing international links to markets including Belgium and Netherlands.
Also on July 1, Emirates will add a third daily frequency to Cape Town. This Dubai-Cape Town service will be operated on the A350-900.
Ethiopian Airlines will be adding three frequencies per week for the Addis Ababa flight, starting March 29. This will culminate in a double daily service going forward.
This comes as two-way passengers at the international terminal at the Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) increase.
In January it handled over 367 000 travellers, marking a 9-percent year-on-year increase.
The domestic terminal processed more than 680 000 two-way passengers in January, a 6-percent increase compared to the same period in 2025.
Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, provided the figures.
It noted CTIA welcomed Africa’s first Airbus A350-1000 on an African route, introduced by Ethiopian Airlines, on February 5.
CTIA is embarking on a phased infrastructure upgrade as part of Airports Company South Africa’s R21,7 billion (US$1,35 billion) investment programme.
– CAJ News
