Cape Town - Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has written to Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier to ask the Western Cape to hold back on its 9-month-old intergovernmental dispute over Delta Airlines being allowed to fly a triangular route between Atlanta, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
This emerged during a briefing on the issue to the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism by the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism (Dedat)
Maynier said he had received correspondence from Mbalula, who had requested that the Province give him a “final indulgence” and the opportunity to urgently deal with the matter of co-terminalisation rights for Delta Airlines between Atlanta, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Maynier said he had referred the minister’s letter to legal services to take advice on how he should reply given the intergovernmental framework.
Committee chairperson Deidré Baartman (DA) asked Maynier for greater clarity on the minister’s response.
“It doesn’t help that you say that you referred it to legal services to answer. I know sometimes when I refer matters to legal it means I don’t agree with the answer I received. I would like to know whether it was a positive or a negative answer?”
Maynier said the minister’s answer contained no substantive response to the dispute and that he had referred the letter to legal services because he wanted to take advice on how to respond.
“Because we are in an intergovernmental dispute, I will get advice on how to respond appropriately within the intergovernmental dispute framework,” Maynier said
During the briefing, Cape Town Air Access project manager Paul van den Brink said there was some positive news for the Western Cape as United Airlines, which in 2019 started operating direct flights to Cape Town from Newark in New York, would, from June, have three flights a week to Cape Town.
The pandemic interrupted flights in March 2020 but the airline returned in December last year, and the more frequent schedule is the result of the route doing so well.
