Durban - Emirates is regaining ground in South Africa as it has reached 42 weekly flights in the country, which is not far off from the 49 weekly flights it had before the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is according to the regional manager of Emirates in southern Africa, Afzal Parambil, who spoke to The Mercury on the sidelines of Africa’s Travel Indaba at the Durban ICC yesterday.
Parambil said they planned to position Durban as a popular holiday destination for travellers, adding that the airline offered 140 destinations to South African customers, from Dubai.
“South Africa is also a unique destination as there are multiple reasons to visit the country. In other parts of Africa tourists might visit for a safari, but in South Africa there are multiple reasons to visit such as beaches, vineyards or family destinations. Durban also has a lot of attractions and we do feel that it is an undersold and under-promoted destination.”
Parambil said Emirates had direct flights from Durban where people travelled to Dubai and from there to other holiday destinations.
“We are working with South African Tourism to ensure that Durban and KwaZulu-Natal are also seen as prime holiday destinations, as there is a lot to do here,” he said.
He added that the most popular destination for South Africans using Emirates was Dubai.
“We also have a lot of travellers going to Türkiye and the Maldives. These holiday destinations are common as it is easy to attain visas. Other holiday destinations that are opening up for South Africans with Emirates are Georgia and Macedonia.”
Parambil said the airline was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We had to ground most of our flights. We had to restart in a slow manner. During that two-year period we recorded losses in our revenue. In the last year and a half we are seeing a significant turn around. Demand has increased for international flights. We are seeing Emirates getting back to preCovid 19 pandemic levels. Corporate flights are still recovering, however leisure flights have recovered.”
He said Emirates was operating in 140 destinations, which was close to pre-Covid 19 levels.
“We have daily flights in Durban, double flights in Cape Town and in Johannesburg we had four flights before Covid-19, but we are now operating three flights,” said Parambil, adding that they were working on having other direct international flights to Durban.
“One of the direct flights that we are looking at having is a direct flight to Mauritius.
“It is quite challenging to have daily multiple destination flights from Durban without catching a connecting flight to Johannesburg, which is the main hub,” he said.