Friday, 26 June
9h ago
American global carrier Delta Air Lines says business consultants and Baby Boomer retirees are driving strong growth in travel demand between South Africa and the US, despite fraught relations between Pretoria and Washington.
The airline says its average passenger load factor for the US-SA route has reached between 80% and 90%. The metric measures the percentage of available seating capacity filled by paying passengers.
Delta Air operates daily flights between Atlanta and Johannesburg, and weekly flights between Atlanta and Cape Town. Overall, it operates 4 000 daily flights to 275 destinations in 50 countries.
Speaking at a media roundtable in Cape Town on Thursday, Delta Air managing director for international sales, Rob Lebel, said premium leisure travel between SA and the US had contributed to high load factors. Tourists and emigrants who visit family back in SA make up the bulk of passengers. Lebel also said consultants undertaking business travel, as well as employees of humanitarian and non-profit organisations, were frequent fliers.
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Said Lebel at the roundtable: “Baby Boomers [the generation often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964] are retiring in droves, accumulating wealth that we have not seen in the history of the US as far as retirement funds are concerned – whether it is pension plans with employers, 401Ks, or lucrative retirements through good saving. Now, they want to travel to places they have never been before. They want to go on Safari and do wine tasting, which are among the things South Africa has to offer. They also do a lot of escorted tours, and that channel is booming.”
According to research from SA Tourism, arrivals from the US reached 391 939 passengers in 2025, surpassing pre-Covid levels, and are forecast to exceed 400 000 in 2026. About two-thirds of US travellers are over the age of 35.
The research considers US visitors among the highest spenders in SA, with total spend reaching R11.8 billion in 2025, and travellers spending on average R32 200 during their visit. Daily spend averages R2 000.
According to Stats SA, US travellers accounted for almost a quarter (41 846) of the 170 837 tourists who arrived in SA in May.
Lebel says Delta Air sees SA as a strong aviation market, which the airline first entered in 2006.
Having operated on its Johannesburg route for a number of years, the global carrier briefly paused its operations in SA during the pandemic. However, it resumed its operations in August 2021, with the Atlanta-Cape Town route also added in 2022.
“South Africa holds a lot of economic potential … Johannesburg is also a phenomenal connection hub for the industry and for sub-Saharan Africa. We also leverage our partnerships with airlines such as Air France and KLM, which serve more destinations than Delta does. So, our customers can connect via Europe to even more destinations in Africa with these airlines.”
Delta Air Lines executives have said the US and SA need to revisit the prospect of new bilateral air service agreements to approve new routes and increase flight frequencies between the two countries.
Delta Air managing director for government affairs and policy, David Werner, said the airline had expressed this desire to both the US and SA governments.
He said at the roundtable: “We have spoken with the US Department of Transportation and the government about this opportunity, but that is where we leave it. I think there is constant communication between the two governments, and we are aware of the larger political context. We accept that other things are at play, but what we hope to show is the continued demand and interest, and the potential.”
When asked whether Delta Air would expand into other destinations, such as Durban in SA and other cities in the US, Werner said: “We cannot speak to a specific destination, but everything would be on the table.”
Werner said the SA government had been open and responsive to concerns from international airlines.
In response to questions around the high costs of operating in Africa and whether Delta Air had experienced regulatory hurdles operating in SA, he said: “Nowhere is perfect”.
According to the International Air Transport Association, market growth in Africa has been hampered by infrastructure backlogs, ageing fleets, visa issues, and fragmented markets. With the Iran War driving jet fuel prices upward, the association expects airline profitability on the continent to decrease year-on-year to $100 million in 2026, with profit per passenger a mere $0.04.
Despite this outlook, Werner said:
He praised Transport Minister Barbara Creecy for improving the approval timelines of aviation regulations.
“When we had to get new aircraft approved, some details had been approved, but for some parts, it was a drawn-out process. Historically, it has taken us a long time to get these approvals done here. Minister Creecy was alerted to the slower process, and now we are seeing a tremendous improvement in terms of the speed at which the department is [handling] that process.”
He also said BEE policies had “never been an issue” for the airline since it began operating in SA.
READ | No BEE rules for international airlines, court affirms
Earlier in June, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that the International Air Services Council could not enforce or apply Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment or other race-based criteria when adjudicating operating licenses for international airlines.
Still, Delta Air managing director for Europe and Africa, Matt Long, said the company was committed to policies that advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We are committed to diversity in our employment base and our customer base. There is a tremendous opportunity when we think beyond the United States. We are also trying to diversify our suppliers and where we want to invest our aircraft,” he said.
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