A direct flight between Cape Town and Lisbon with Portuguese airline TAP Portugal will launch in November 2021, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde announced in his State of the Province Address on Wednesday, February 17.
‘We will work to grow international and domestic tourism at a time when it is severely constrained in order to save the thousands of jobs this sector creates,’ Winde said. ‘We need to prepare for what will be another difficult year for the tourism sector in our province.’
Currently, flights between Portugal and other destinations will only be permitted for essential travel (from and to non-EU countries or which are not Schengen Associated Countries).
In this case, passengers must present a negative test to COVID-19 (RT-PCR), taken within 72 hours before departure time.
According to Portugal’s tourism website, ‘essential travel’ is defined as trips allowing the transit, entry into and departure from Portugal for the following persons:
- Citizens of a European Union member state, Schengen Associated countries and their family members;
- Citizens repatriated through consular assistance;
- Third-country nationals travelling for professional purposes, study, family reunions, health and humanitarian reasons and under the reciprocity principle.
The province also plans to add a direct route from Cape Town to Atlanta on Delta Airlines, with the aim of launching this year.
‘Without connectivity, long-haul travel to our province will be even more difficult to promote,’ Winde said.
He added that the Air Access team, housed at Wesgro, continues to engage with the aviation industry and there are ‘some promising signs emerging.’
Earlier this week, Airlink added a connection between Cape Town and Harare, as well as Cape Town to Walvis Bay, launching in March.
Also read:
Picture: Twitter/OlivierHoarau
