South Africa officially has a new airport for intercontinental flights with the arrival of German leisure carrier Eurowings Discover set to bring up to 30 000 passengers a year from Frankfurt to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP).
After a stopover in Windhoek (WDH), the Lufthansa subsidiary’s Airbus A330 touched down to an enthusiastic reception at the small airport outside Mbombela, Mpumalanga’s capital city, on Wednesday (November 16). The flight – which Eurowings Discover aims to ramp up from a twice a week to a thrice-weekly, year-round service – is a major boon for the province and South Africa’s tourism industry.
Germany is South Africa’s third-largest overseas source market, and the Kruger National Park is a particularly sought-after destination, attracting approximately 170 000 German tourists annually pre-COVID.
“KNP is part of the itinerary for the vast majority of Germans visiting South Africa, so the opportunity to fly direct to the region is a significant attraction. Flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town are in extremely high demand and it is in the mutual interests of both South Africa and Germany to meet this demand with an additional, innovative offering such as this, which brings flights from Germany up to more than 30 per week,” said Andreas Peschke, Germany’s Ambassador to South Africa.
Thandiwe Mathibela, Global PR, Communications and Stakeholder Relations Manager for South African Tourism, added that the new route would serve the needs that the agency had identified through its collaboration with government, airlines and trade partners.
“We believe in connecting with trade partners and travellers to discover exactly what they are looking for, so that we can serve that. We know that this flight is exactly what Europeans and Germans are looking for. And once you land at Kruger Mpumalanga, you can connect and enjoy the length and breadth of South Africa.”
