Aviation profile South Africa Outbound travel to the UK Weekly departing seats Weekly seat capacity to the UK per airline Regional spread of seat capacity Percentage of seats on all direct and selected connecting routes* Percentage of selected UK-inbound seats 14,350 served by direct routes BritishAirways South African Airways Virgin Atlantic Airways Thomas Cook Airlines*** 9,812 2,127 2,109 302 4% 3% Glasgow Edinburgh 2% Newcastle 17% Manchester Weekly <1% flight departures Weekly flight departures per aircraft type 8% Birmingham Boeing 747 Airbus A380 Airbus A330 Boeing 787 1% 65% 14 10 8 8 Cardiff London British British South African Virgin Atlantic Airways Airways Airways Airways 12% Boeing 777 Airbus A340 1 1 44 Thomas Cook British 1 1 Airlines*** Airways British South African Airways Airways Note: Direct routes from South Africa only serve London and Manchester. Weekly departing seats on direct routes to the UK Weekly departing seats on connecting routes to the UK* London Heathrow airport** Virgin South From British Johannesburg, Emirates Via Emirates To London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Airways Atlantic African 9,515 Airways Airways Cape Town & 21,322 Dubai, UAE 60,314 Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, 2,127 2,109 Durban London Stansted & Edinburgh From Qatar Via Qatar To London Heathrow, Manchester, London Johannesburg Airways Airways Hamad (Doha), Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham & Cardiff & Cape Town 6,915 Qatar 27,864 London Gatwick airport Manchester Thomas Thomas British From Etihad Via Etihad Airways Cook Cook Airways Airways To London Heathrow, Manchester & Edinburgh Airlines*** Airlines*** Johannesburg Abu Dhabi, UAE 296 284 18 1,892 16,890 Source: Apex. Non-stop routes only for direct routes and for each segment of the connecting route examples. Average weekly data for 2018. VisitBritain Carol Maddison Notes: * Please note that the section only shows examples of connecting routes. Etihad Airways cancelled its Abu Dhabi - 1205 Aspect Tower Head of Projects APMEA Edinburgh route as of 1 October 2018. ** From October 2018 British airways added four more weekly flights from Johannesburg to London Heathrow, and Business Bay, PO Box 33342 [email protected] resumed service on the Durban - London Heathrow route. ***Only operating a few seasonal flights a year, mostly for people going back to the UK. Dubai, UAE.