Cape Town – Preliminary statistics from Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) show that Cape Town International Airport recorded a spectacular recovery in passenger numbers during the peak season month of December when compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger on Wednesday welcomed the Acsa statistics.
“These preliminary statistics received from Acsa show that Cape Town International Airport recorded 266 656 international 2-way passenger numbers for December 2022, resulting in a spectacular 95% recovery when compared to December 2019.
“The domestic terminal, for the same month, recorded a strong 72% recovery when compared to the 2019 figure with 790 514 2-way passengers recorded.
“Together, this is expected to bring the 2-way passenger numbers for CTIA to over 8 million in 2022,” Wenger said.
Over this period, Provincial Traffic Services also noted high levels of traffic on Western Cape roads as citizens and visitors travelled to and within the province.
Wesgro chief executive Wrenelle Stander said: “Wesgro is confident that the province is well on its way to moving from tourism recovery to tourism growth in 2023.
“Cape Town and the Western Cape will continue to flourish in the coming year, welcoming even more tourists to enjoy wide open spaces and world-class yet affordable travel experiences.”
Cruise Cape Town also indicated that on two separate days this season the Cape Town Cruise Terminal welcomed three ships in the terminal on the same day – a first for the port.
On 21 December 2022 Hanseatic Spirit (200 pax), Norwegian Jade (2100 pax) and Seven Seas Voyager (600 pax) were in port together, and on 3 January 2023 the Cruise Terminal was home to the Azamara Journey (with 359 passengers), the MSC Sinfonia with 2000 passengers and the Norwegian Jade 1500 passengers – a bumper 3859 passengers.
This season, between November 2022 to April 2023, the Western Cape is welcoming 75 ship visits to the Cape Town Cruise Terminal, the largest amount in its history, of which 41 ships importantly are turnaround visits where passengers disembark and new passengers board for a new journey.
Cape Times