Durban Eyes GlobalL Airlines For Direct Landings
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Team KZN greatly boosts its drive for international air connectivity
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.
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KwaZulu-Natal[/caption]
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.
MEC Mabuyakhulu also had an opportunity to address conference delegates on the destination’s offerings and formed part of a panel discussion session looking at new tourism investment models.
Said MEC Mabuyakhulu : “The 2013 leg of World Routes also provided us an opportunity to observe from the perspective of Host City, Las Vegas, the staging of this all-important gathering in preparation for when we host these global aviation leaders in 2015, the first time World Routes will be hosted in Africa”.
KwaZulu-Natal Province will play host to the 21st World Routes Development Forum at ICC Durban between 20 and 22 September 2015.
“The World Routes 2015 will position our flagship development, Dube TradePort – Southern Africa’s premier air logistics platform and the home of the continent's first purpose-built airport city – which incorporates the King Shaka International Airport, for major growth in air services.
“At the official opening of Dube Trade Port last year, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma challenged us to grow King Shaka International Airport into becoming an alternative aviation hub. Bringing World Routes 2015 to KwaZulu-Natal is our response to this challenge, amongst our other strategic initiatives. The KwaZulu-Natal Province has participated in past World Routes events and, based on our analysis, we have seen how air services have improved in airports that have hosted these events. It is, therefore, our plan to leverage on the hosting of World Routes 2015 to help grow airlift out of King Shaka International Airport, the host airport for this event,” he said.
The Chairperson of KwaZulu-Natal Tourism, Mr. Sadha Naidoo, who formed part of the delegation, added: “With aviation being the golden thread in tourism, the conference provided us an opportunity to not only engage with significant international role-players, but also to share our vision in terms of tourism growth and development in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We believe that in the run-up to World Routes in Durban during 2015, we will further announce more routes out of King Shaka International Airport,” concluded Mr Naidoo.
[caption id="attachment_4000" align="aligncenter" width="578"]
KwaZulu-Natal[/caption]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.
MEC Mabuyakhulu also had an opportunity to address conference delegates on the destination’s offerings and formed part of a panel discussion session looking at new tourism investment models.
Said MEC Mabuyakhulu : “The 2013 leg of World Routes also provided us an opportunity to observe from the perspective of Host City, Las Vegas, the staging of this all-important gathering in preparation for when we host these global aviation leaders in 2015, the first time World Routes will be hosted in Africa”.
KwaZulu-Natal Province will play host to the 21st World Routes Development Forum at ICC Durban between 20 and 22 September 2015.
“The World Routes 2015 will position our flagship development, Dube TradePort – Southern Africa’s premier air logistics platform and the home of the continent's first purpose-built airport city – which incorporates the King Shaka International Airport, for major growth in air services.
“At the official opening of Dube Trade Port last year, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma challenged us to grow King Shaka International Airport into becoming an alternative aviation hub. Bringing World Routes 2015 to KwaZulu-Natal is our response to this challenge, amongst our other strategic initiatives. The KwaZulu-Natal Province has participated in past World Routes events and, based on our analysis, we have seen how air services have improved in airports that have hosted these events. It is, therefore, our plan to leverage on the hosting of World Routes 2015 to help grow airlift out of King Shaka International Airport, the host airport for this event,” he said.
The Chairperson of KwaZulu-Natal Tourism, Mr. Sadha Naidoo, who formed part of the delegation, added: “With aviation being the golden thread in tourism, the conference provided us an opportunity to not only engage with significant international role-players, but also to share our vision in terms of tourism growth and development in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We believe that in the run-up to World Routes in Durban during 2015, we will further announce more routes out of King Shaka International Airport,” concluded Mr Naidoo.
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