SAA and Global Airlines launch New Flight routes to boost travel in 2025
image: Daily Maverick
by Kelebogile Matlou
South African Airways (SAA) has announced a new direct flight between Cape Town and Mauritius. This is the first time SAA will fly this route. The flights will begin on Tuesday, 9 December 2025, and will run three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Here are the flight times:
- The flight leaves Cape Town at 09:25 and arrives in Mauritius at 16:30, taking about five hours.
- The return flight leaves Mauritius at 17:20 and arrives in Cape Town at 21:30.
Between mid-January and mid-March 2026, the flight will run only twice a week to match lower travel demand during that season. SAA said the new flight is an important step for the airline and will help travelers in the Western Cape.“Connecting Cape Town with Mauritius is a fascinating achievement that our team has been aspiring towards for quite some time,” the airline said.
The airline said that the introduction of this route demonstrates SAA’s role in promoting leisure travel across the region and supports the broader tourism objectives for both South Africa and Mauritius. SAA is not the only airline expanding routes. Other local and international airlines are also introducing new flights.
FlySafair will start a new route from Cape Town to Hoedspruit, Limpopo, from 2 October 2025. The flights will also run three times a week Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The airline says this new route will make it easier to reach Kruger National Park and the Limpopo province, adding to its existing route to Mbombela.
Qantas, the Australian airline, will bring back direct flights between Johannesburg and Perth starting in December 2025. These flights will give South Africans direct access to Perth, and easy connections to Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. There will also be a one-stop flight option to New Zealand, with a new Perth to Auckland route starting in the same month.
Air France will also return with its seasonal direct flight between Cape Town and Paris, running from 15 December 2025 to 12 January 2026. These daily flights are timed perfectly for the South African summer holidays and Europe’s winter vacation season. Together with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the Air France-KLM group will offer up to 18 flights a week to Cape Town and 32 flights to South Africa. This will add over 11,000 seats per direction every week. These new routes show strong growth in air travel to and from South Africa, helping boost tourism and giving travelers more options.