Airline Emirates plans to again ramp up operations in South Africa with 42 weekly flights between Dubai and Emirates’ three gateways in South Africa – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Emirates offered 49 weekly flights between South Africa and Dubai, and the airline plans to return to this weekly service schedule by May 2023, says commercial operations Africa senior VP Badr Abbas.

He explains that a recent increase in air travel demand is continuing to outstrip capacity across the airline industry and that Emirates is “working hard” to provide more seat capacity, where possible, across its network to respond to the demand.

“For more than 25 years, we have invested in, and grown our operations to, South Africa. We are working hard to restore our services to pre-pandemic levels to help generate more opportunities for South Africans to explore the world and for travellers from around the world to experience South Africa’s unique natural experiences, world-renowned cuisine and local culture,” says Abbas.

In addition, Emirates is also introducing new services between major domestic airports, with three daily flights to and from Johannesburg as of March 1, 2023. Cape Town will be served with double daily services starting from February 1, 2023, while Durban will be serviced with double daily flights from December 1 this year.

Consumer flight segments have mostly returned to pre-pandemic patterns and the bulk of Emirates’ traffic comprises leisure travellers and those visiting friends, relatives and family, he says.

Abbas also highlights that corporate air travel has been slower to recover post Covid-19; however, with the need to conduct business in person, as well as an increase in international conferences, Abbas says the corporate segment will soon be rebuilt.

“The ramp up of flights is part of our ongoing commitment to support South Africa’s economic and tourism recovery through enhanced connectivity across all of our gateways,” says Abbas.

In this regard, he says, airline partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Cemair and FlySafair are resulting in high feeder demand on Emirates’ domestic market.

However, Abbas notes that air travellers are still planning in late stages – a behaviour developed during the pandemic.

Nonetheless, in May, Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the South African Tourism Board to jointly promote tourism and boost visitor arrivals and inbound traffic to South Africa from key markets across Emirates’ network.

“Under the MoU, [Emirates] will jointly explore opportunities to promote South Africa and encourage travellers to experience the abundance of attractions that the country has to offer across our network of over 130 destinations.

“The South Africa Tourism Board will also work closely with us to support travel trade partners and tour operators across the Emirates network to develop and promote itineraries, introduce special packages and promotional giveaways and encourage incentives, among other marketing initiatives,” he says.

Meanwhile, Abbas points out that outbound flight demand for the year thus far, has exceeded Emirates’ expectations and is in line with the current capacity it is operating at, in and out of its South African gateways.

“We are seeing healthy flows in and out of points in Europe, the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, and we are seeing growing traffic to points in the US,” he states.

He also points out that South Africans are primarily travelling to the UK, Germany, Turkey, India, Thailand, the US, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. “These are our top destinations. Dubai is our number one destination this year and . . . we are seeing an increasing demand for Dubai.”