9 May 2011 |
It is reported in Business Day, that Comair is to start Durban to London flights., in accordance with an agreement reached with the Dube Trade Port and the KZN government. It's not clear whether the flights will be under the Kulula or British Airways brands, but the flights will be to London Gatwick Airport. There is "still a huge amount of work we need to do", said the Chief Executive Officer of Comair, Mr G Novick.
Mike Mabuyakhulu, the KZN Economic Development and Tourism MEC said “This deal is a massive tourism and aviation industry coup for KZN… Comair have seen what we are doing here at Dube TradePort; they see now that this is more than just an airport and have bought into our greater vision. We have signed an agreement, which is the basis of a much bigger potential public-private partnership. We have secured a long-term strategic partnership with Comair, which we envisage over the next 12 months will see the establishment of a long-haul air route out of Durban’s King Shaka International Airport to London’s Gatwick International Airport. There will also be a new route out of Durban to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, with a view to investigating a number of other regional links to African cities including Harare, Lusaka, Luanda, Dar es Salaam and Maputo. With Comair, we have a competitive private sector partner with a proven track record, which we believe will see us achieve our goals and see King Shaka fly to new heights.”.
Novick said that “Dube TradePort is a mind-boggling development… It is a state-of-the-art world class project that we are proud to be now getting involved with. I realised this was an excellent opportunity for Comair. There is now a huge amount of work ahead of us to get all the regulatory approvals to start flights to London and our plans for Africa. This includes getting permission from British Airways to possibly use their brand in operations to Gatwick. There are other options, like using our kulula.com low-cost brand, but British Airways would be our first choice on that route.
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