Lufthansa Adds Cape Town-Frankfurt Route

In light of the growing importance of the Cape Town-Europe route due to an increase in interest, particularly from European businesses and leisure travellers, Lufthansa German Airlines will extend the direct flight service between Frankfurt and Cape Town to year-round starting 2 December 2016. This follows an announcement made earlier in the year that it would offer direct flights between Frankfurt and Cape Town for the seasonal period.

“Cape Town’s importance and popularity are growing significantly. Following the decision to offer direct flights between Frankfurt and Cape Town earlier this year, the future demand for this route proved to be quite robust, prompting us to increase the schedule to a year-round service,” says Dr. André Schulz, Lufthansa general manager for Southern Africa.

Interest in the direct route between Frankfurt and Cape Town came not only from German travellers but from many of Lufthansa’s customers in Europe that favoured a direct route between the continent and the City of Cape Town.

“While many European airlines offer a service between their major airports and South Africa, the direct route to Cape Town remains a limited option. Lufthansa’s Munich and Frankfurt airports are the leading travel hubs for European travel, as well as for over 200 other connecting destinations. Even ahead of the December launch, the direct route to and from Cape Town proved to be very popular with travellers that wanted to decrease the amount of flight connections, and preferred flight time options that would suit their business and leisure preferences We have chosen departure and arrival times carefully to offer travellers the best possible options to access connections to the entire Lufthansa Group network, particularly for onward European and North American connections” says Schulz.


Flights will depart from Frankfurt every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Flight LH343 leaves Lufthansa's Frankfurt hub at 10.10pm and arrives in Cape Town the following morning at 11am. The return journey departs from Cape Town in the early evening at 6.30pm and touches down in Frankfurt the following morning at 5.30am.

The Cape Town route will be served by a newly retrofitted Airbus A340-300, which boasts over 279 seats and offers the new Intercontinental Business Class (30), new Premium Economy (28) Class, and Economy Class (221).

Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro, says, “If you take into account all the flights coming into South Africa by the airlines owned by the Lufthansa Group - Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, SWISS (Swiss International Air Lines) and Edelweiss - then the Lufthansa group’s investment into the SA-Europe connection is clear. The group transports hundreds of thousands of passengers between South African and the group’s Zurich, Munich, and Frankfurt hubs each year, with the Lufthansa non-stop route between Cape Town and Frankfurt representing a significant number of these travellers.”