Until very recently, these islands were not much visited by northern Europeans and the islanders had only to cope with a few thousand visitors a year. But now all is about to change with direct flights from Birmingham ( England ), starting in November 2006. This beautiful archipeligo is suddenly far easier to reach than it was, having previously only been accessible by air via southern European or African airports, or by sea. The visitors from Britain may far outnumber those from other countries for a while because of heavy television publicity about the property investment potential. Channel 4's " A Place in the Sun" ranked the Islands at 12 in their top '20 Best Places to Buy'. The BBC's Holiday Programme also gave substantial coverage.
There are nine main islands with a total of seven airports scattered across them. What has changed everything was the opening of Cape Verde International Airport in Praia on the island of Santiago in October 2005. Yet even after this happened, it was still necessary to stop in Lisbon and change flights if flying from Northern Europe . From now on the Cape Verdean Airline TACV will be flying from Birmingham directly into the new airport. Fights are also planned by the independent airline Astraeus from London Gatwick and Manchester and will start at about the same time as the TACV service. Howver, the destination airport on the island of Sal . Flying times will be reduced from seven hours to five and a half; not much longer than flights to the extremely popular Canary Islands . This means that the benefits of Caribbean latitudes, together with similar scenery and climate are now reachable without the jet-lag.