TURKISH Airlines will
soon be the third
international airline to
launch flights to Durban’s
King Shaka International
Airport.
Ibrahim Ethem Ozdemir,
Turkish Airlines commercial
manager, told TNW the
airline planned to introduce
flights to Durban from
October.
Earlier this year, the airline
announced it would split
its IST-JNB-CPT-IST route
from October 26, offering
daily flights to both Cape
Town and Johannesburg.
The Johannesburg route
would be linked with
Maputo in Mozambique,
with a three times weekly
onward connection. Ibrahim
said this would double
the present capacity on
the South African route,
supporting the high demand
from travel agents and
travellers.
The Durban travel
industry has welcomed
the announcement of the
new flight. Dinesh Naidoo,
group operations director
of Serendipity Worldwide
Group, says the new
international connection
will increase much-needed
competition on the Durban
route. “We are really excited
about the announcement
of a third international
carrier to Durban, especially
as Turkish Airlines offers
very good connections into
Europe.”
Durban will host the
aviation event, World Routes
2015, from September
19-22 this year. “The
KwaZulu Natal province has
participated in past World
Routes events and, based
on our analysis, we have
seen how air services have
expanded to cities 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,” said KZN MEC for
Economic Development
and Tourism, Michael
Mabuyakhulu.
Just last month, Qatar
Airways announced plans
to launch four new weekly
flights to Durban (via
Johannesburg), starting
December 17. Emirates
is currently the only
international airline flying to
the city.
Another airline heads to Durban
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