The City of Cape Town has lauded the Cape Town International Airport for winning the 2022 Best Airport in Africa award at the Skytrax World Airport Awards.

This is the seventh consecutive year that Cape Town International Airport has won this award.

Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth James Vos said the City was proud to be able to work closely with the airport team to produce a world-class facility. He said the airport is a vital piece of economic infrastructure that positively impacts on employment and business expansion.

This award is what brings global attention and gives airlines confidence in flying to the Mother City. It is also a show of economic readiness as a city, because connecting Cape Town to more cities and countries means that we can welcome more visitors and create more jobs through tourism and provide trade opportunities to increase export of proudly Cape products to the rest of the world. he said.

Vos further stresses that the Airport Company of South Africa needs to prioritise the planned expansion of the airport due to the high volumes of passengers and aircraft movements.

In May, international arrivals reported a recovery of 70% and 82% for domestic arrivals when compared to the same period in 2019.

Mireille Wenger, Provincial MEC of Finance and Economic Opportunities says the awards are a clear vote of confidence in the airport, and she has congratulate the CTIA, their team and all those involved in making this achievement possible.

She says the next step is to work with all stakeholders to compete with the best airports in the world.

The World Airport Awards are described as ‘the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry, voted by customers in the largest, annual global airport customer satisfaction survey, assessing customer service and facilities across over 550 airports.’ Last week, I had the opportunity to visit CTIA for the announcement of United Airlines year-round service, which is great news for the Western Cape and shows that there is clearly a surge in demand for flights to Cape Town. As a proud partner of the Air Access programme, we will continue to push hard to increase the number of connections to the Western Cape because more connections, mean more tourism, more trade, and more investment opportunities, which good for economic growth and job creation.