Airport gears up for the summer season
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | 00:00

The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) team has geared up its festive season plans ahead of the busy summer season.

Passenger numbers for the month of November show an increase of 6% compared to the same period last year with a total of just under 760 000 arriving and departing passengers in Cape Town. The month of November saw just under 300 000 Domestic arriving passengers, marking a 4% increase in domestic arriving passengers compared to November last year while the departure front saw an increase of 6%. International arriving passenger numbers for the month of November showed an impressive increase of 14% compared to the same period last year while International departing passenger numbers grew by 10% compared to last year.

Total arriving passengers grew by 6% for November compared to last year with total departures growing slightly more.

“To date the airport has processed just over 7, 6 million passengers with an average of 23 000 passengers moving through the airport per day”, says Deidre Davids Communications Manager, Cape Town International Airport. “As is always the case, this time of year the operational teams put various plans in place to ensure that the airport is able to deal with the number of passengers and visitors passing through the airport”, added Davids.

Operational plans include deploying staff and resources in line with the peaks, such as early mornings and late afternoons. The teams have also put in place additional services in the unaccompanied minors’ area as the use thereof increases this time of the year. More trolley staff will deployed as these are in frequent use across the airport precinct.

The summer schedule which kicked off end October also saw the airport welcome back some of the seasonal carriers such as Lufthansa who flies daily to Frankfurt and Virgin who fly daily to London Heathrow airport. Air France recently started operating and they fly three times a week connecting Cape Town directly to Paris. Edelweiss Air flies twice a week directly to Zurich â€" both these new carries are seasonal, with the summer schedule ending on March.

Domestic passengers are reminded to arrive an hour and a half before their flight and International passengers are reminded to arrive two and a half hours before their flight. “Passengers should also consider on-line check-in which greatly reduces their waiting time at the airport” recommended Davids.
Categories: Passengers