Thomas Cook has announced they will be flying direct to Cape Town from Gatwick Airport starting December 15, 2015 through March 20, 2017. The airline will operate their refurbished A330 fleet to run the route from Gatwick to South Africa’s popular destination. The flights will depart three times a week on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. The return will start at £699. This route adds to some of the other popular international destinations departing from Gatwick like Cancun and Cuba.
Thomas Cook’s Christoph Debus, who is chief airlines and hotels officer said: “Cape Town really is a ‘WOW!’ destination for our customers.”
The South African city is often a dream destination for many and it will help increase the notice given to Gatwick as they are also adding direct flights to Los Angeles and Boston next year.
These international destinations are expected to increase traffic to Gatwick as well as possibly easing some of the congestion experienced at Heathrow airport. With some of the more popular US destinations too, this should also increase the popularity of Gatwick airport as well.
There are parts of the UK where the distance is the same to Gatwick as it is to Heathrow, but with more choices, Gatwick will be the better choice.
With some of the complications Heathrow has experienced with talks of expansion, Gatwick’s ability to fly more international routes should help. If other airports across Greater London are to do long haul flights, perhaps the infrastructure will be reinforced all around, instead of the focus on one location.
It should be interesting to see how popular the new route will be as well as whether Gatwick decides to keep the route after the trial in March.