Over the past year major global airline brands such as Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, plus local southern African operators Air Namibia and Proflight Zambia, have already inaugurated flights from Durban, South Africa. These services have delivered important regional, continental and notably key intercontinental connectivity, complementing the existing transit options with Comair (British Airways franchise) and South African Airways via Johannesburg and Emirates Airline via Dubai.
The return of Africa’s largest carrier to the southern city, its third destination in South Africa, can be directly linked to recent World Routes forums, and of course, the hosting of this year’s event in Durban.
From snorkeling with sharks to the world’s tallest bungee swing, there’s plenty to see and do in Durban. We’d like to share with you just a handful of experiences of what the Routes team got up to after the hard work of World Routes was over.
The UBM EMEA Routes team were pleased to be to able to team up with a couple of local Durban charities supported by this year’s World Routes hosts in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and to present them with a range of goods donated by the team and event exhibitors as well new products bought using money raised through fundraising activities.
Durban will be Turkish Airlines’ third destination in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town. The airline first introduced flights into the country with a three times weekly joint operation to Johannesburg and onward to Cape Town from its Istanbul Ataturk International Airport hub in September 2007 but has grown to offer a daily service on the route, currently flown using an Airbus A330.
Durban will be Turkish Airlines’ third destination in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town. The airline first introduced flights into the country with a three times weekly joint operation to Johannesburg and onward to Cape Town from its Istanbul Ataturk International Airport hub in September 2007 but has grown to offer a daily service on the route, currently flown using an Airbus A330.
Gulf carrier Qatar Airways confirmed in February this year that it would introduce flights to this year’s World Routes host city as part of an expansion of its network in South Africa. The four times weekly service, as an extension of an expanded schedule between Doha and Johannesburg, will be launched from December 17, 2015, just three months after World Routes, providing an important new hub connection offering to the coastal city.
In recent years the Province of KwaZulu-Natal has positioned Durban as a world-class African city, having successfully hosted high profile events like COP17, BRICS Summit, Top Gear, Volvo World Championships, MTV Awards and just last week the World Forestry Congress made its debut on the African continent. It was also recently announced as the host for 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Durban and KwaZulu-Natal have a rich natural heritage and culture, boasting Big 5 game reserves, battlefield memorials, two World Heritage Sites and rock paintings, thousands of years old.
Recently named as one of CNN’s most underrated cities and hitting 7th on the New York Times’ list of ’52 Places to go in 2015’, Durban is a city on the rise.
Durban will be Turkish Airlines’ third destination in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town. The airline first introduced flights into the country with a three times weekly joint operation to Johannesburg and onward to Cape Town from its Istanbul Ataturk International Airport hub in September 2007 but has grown to offer a daily service on the route, currently flown using an Airbus A330.
