While Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) had 25% of South Africa’s air cargo capacity, it currently accounted for only 15% of the country’s air cargo traffic, pointed out Wesgro Cape Town Air Access project manager David King. “We need to work on that,” he affirmed. (He was addressing the first Western Cape Air Cargo Conference, in Durbanville, Cape Town, on Tuesday. Wesgro is the Western Cape’s tourism, trade and investment promotion agency.)

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, CTIA had handled 17% of South Africa’s air cargo, so the traffic through it had not quite achieved full recovery. “The recovery curve is [however] pretty steep – it’s sitting at 83%,” he highlighted. And air cargo capacity growth at CTIA this year was expected to be 44%, which would be the highest rate in Africa.

“Our vision is to promote Cape Town and the Western Cape as an international gateway for air cargo in South Africa, to foster economic growth and job creation,” he affirmed. But the idea was to do this in a manner that was not to the detriment of the country’s other airports. (Most of the country’s international airports, including CTIA, belong to Airports Company South Africa, which is one of the partners in the Cape Town Air Access initiative.)

One of the aims of the initiative was to diversify the Western Cape’s exports. Currently, the province’s export flow varied significantly from season to season, due to the prominence of fresh produce, such as fruit, in its export sector.

Scheduled air cargo out of (and into) CTIA was currently entirely carried in the belly holds of wide-body airliners. And last month, international air passenger traffic through CTIA returned to 100% of pre-Covid levels. (Domestic air passenger traffic has recovered to just over 70% of pre-Covid levels.)

Total (that is, both domestic and international) flights operated through CTIA came to 161 a week. These were year-round flights; during the just ended southern summer/northern winter season there were about 40 more flights through the airport. Twenty airlines operated to and from CTIA, serving 25 destinations, including intercontinental destinations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.