Delta Air Lines, the US carrier, has applied to the American Department of Transport for permission to open a direct service between Atlanta and Cape Town.
If approved, Delta will operate three flights a week year round using a 306-seat Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The flights would start on 18 November this year, according to the Daily Tourism Update.
Delta made the application for the flight route on 17 February.
Instead of adding a stop in Johannesburg, the new service will allow Delta to fly directly into the Mother City from its Atlanta hub. This is expected to ease frustrations around limited capacity on flights from the US to Cape Town, especially for big groups, which almost always include Cape Town on their tours.
‘While Delta did not receive final approval from the South African government to operate an intra-South Africa service between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Delta has interline agreements in place with local airlines offering onward connections to Cape Town, via Johannesburg,’ said Jimmy Eichelgruen, Delta’s director of sales for Africa, Middle East and India.
‘We are seeing positive demand for these flights, showing the popularity of travel between South Africa and the US. We hope to receive approval to operate a non-stop Delta service on this important route.’
The suggested flights would leave from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 8:45pm and arrive the following day at 6:45pm in Cape Town. The return flight will depart Cape Town at 9pm and arrive in Atlanta at 6:25am the following day. The specific days that the flights will depart have not been announced yet.
Delta would like the service to have seasonal flexibility and is asking to adjust capacity to match demand in off-peak periods.
‘Granting Delta the requested frequencies is clearly in the public interest. Delta’s proposed service will allow Delta to re-start services to Cape Town, which it last served in 2009. In contrast to Delta’s prior Cape Town service, which operated via Dakar, Senegal, Delta’s new service would give Delta’s customers non-stop access to Cape Town,’ says an official document served to the US Department of Transport.
Picture: Unsplash
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