SOUTH Africa’s airline route development firm Durban Direct is on a trade mission in Zimbabwe this week to enhance air connectivity and stimulate economic growth in the region prioritising collaboration among economic stakeholders.
This move is expected to significantly contribute to the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) over the next two decades, including Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Land travel to South Africa is the most popular, accounting for 72,5% of the trips, while African air travel accounts for only 3%.
This leaves room for improvement in air travel, especially as the main purpose for these visits is meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions business, holiday personal shopping and visiting friends and relatives.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dube TradePort communications and public relations manager Vincent Zwane said: “KwaZulu-Natal, led by the Department of Economic Affairs, Tourism and Environmental Affairs and hosted by Durban Direct, is on a trade mission in Zimbabwe and Zambia this week to boost trade, air travel and tourism between these countries and the province.”
SA Tourism’s latest research report shows that in 2023, travellers from Zimbabwe to South Africa were 2,11 million people per annum, an increase of 70,8% year-on-year from 2022 and made up the highest number of African visitors to the country.
During the same period, Zambian visitors rose 25,1% to 145 244.
“Durban Direct, the committee responsible for route development at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, works to improve the region’s air connectivity with strategic destinations throughout Africa and the world, unlocking aviation’s potential to drive socio-economic development,” Zwane said.
He added that it supported the introduction of new direct air services into KSIA by offering attractive airline and marketing support programmes to assist airlines in starting and growing air services.
KZN Durban Direct KZN delegation marketing committee chairperson and investment leader Thulisile Galelekile said: “It is no coincidence that the fastest growing and most sustainable local economies across the world are served by airports with wide-reaching regional and international networks.”
Route development project manager Xolile Shabalala said they were looking at cultivating more partnerships to systematically drive traffic to Durban, thus leading to more sustainable routes in the long term.
“Regional developments such as the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and Africa’s growing and young population, which is expected to have a significant contribution to the world’s GDP over the next 20 years, are some of the factors making it increasingly important for us to prioritise collaboration among all economic stakeholders in driving air connectivity,” Shabalala said.