Eritrean Airlines launches its flight to Cape Town International Airport

Eritrean Airlines launched its first flight to Cape Town today, the flight landed from Asmara in Eritrea at 16h40 to a traditional water canon salute from Airports Company South Africa, Cape Town International Airport’s Aerodrome Rescue and Fire-Fighter department. The flight departed for OR Tambo International Airport en-route to Eritrea at 17h40. The airline will be offering direct and indirect flights between Cape Town and Asmara in Eritrea with four weekly frequencies. The four weekly frequencies arrive Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with its departures to Asmara scheduled for the same days. The airline will be using an Airbus 319 aircraft with a seating capacity of 148 passengers with eight seats in business class and 140 seats in the economy class.

“This is the third regional airline to join the Cape Town International Airport family after Air Namibia and TAAG Angola Airlines. On Mondays and Fridays, it will fly directly to Cape Town from Esmara with a refuelling stopover in Entebbe – Uganda and on its departure leg travel via OR Tambo International Airport. On Wednesdays and Sundays it will start with OR Tambo then Cape Town and a return flight direct to Asmara with a refuelling stop in Uganda,” said Deborah Francis, Acting Communications Manager; Cape Town International Airport. This is good news for the airport and the region especially as we saw a 17,14% increase in our regional arrivals passenger numbers for the month of March and a 18.26% increase in the month of April compared to the same period in 2011. The month of March also saw 808 104 arriving and departing passengers, a slight difference from the 813 000 passengers processed in December 2012. The international arrivals remain strong with a 14, 57% growth from March 2011, added Francis.

At the end of 2011, the airport also welcomed two international airlines, thus Air France and Edelweiss Air from Switzerland”, concluded Francis.