A380 and Cape Town star in British Airways' new video

British Airways A380 flies over Cape Town

South Africa and more specifically Cape Town are the stars of British Airways' latest online video to promote its new aircraft.

The YouTube clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_N28s2y4kI shows one of the airline's new A380s over Cape Town, as ordinary Capetonians, fishermen, flower sellers, vineyard workers, surfers, cyclists, sports stars and even penguins look up at the massive aircraft flying over Table Mountain. The soundtrack is the Imagine Dragons' 'On top of the world' unmistakably performed by South African multi-award winning Afro-fusion band, Freshlyground, which tours Europe later this year.

"We've been talking about our new aircraft and the £5 billion investment in our customers for a while now, but wanted to bring this to life. What better way to do that than to showcase one of our brand new aircraft flying over one the world's favourite destinations, with the unmistakable form of Table Mountain in the background?" asked Frank van der Post, British Airways' managing director of brands and customer experience.

Besides the famous Boulder's Beach penguins other familiar faces in the video are Springbok rugby players Jean de Villiers, Eben Etzebeth and Schalk Burger. Natural attractions include Table Mountain some of the Peninsula's most popular beaches.

British Airways' cabin crew provide some international flavour, while Adderley Street's flower sellers and Kalk Bay's snoek fishermen add local colour. As no trip to the Western Cape would be complete without a visit to the winelands, Schalk Burger is seen helping with the harvest on the family wine farm.

Alan Winde, the Western Cape minister for finance, economic development and tourism, said the video gives potential visitors a great glimpse of Cape Town and some inkling as to why it is TripAdvisor's most popular African destination, one the Lonely Planet's top three cities and the New York Times' number one choice to visit in 2014.

"We certainly hope it will encourage many more people to come and explore Cape Town and the Western Cape for themselves." British Airways' started A380 services to Johannesburg in February, only the third destination in the world to be confirmed for the new aircraft after Los Angeles and Hong Kong. It currently operates six A380 services to Johannesburg each week as part of its double-daily schedule to that city. It has also increased its schedule to Cape Town this winter, and flies 10 times a week.

The aircraft featured in the video was in South Africa for crew training prior to the start of the Johannesburg services and was used both to launch the new route as well as film the video. "We selected Cape Town for the video because Table Mountain is so iconic. People around the world immediately identify it with South Africa; certainly more so than any other landmark we could think of" explained van der Post.

This isn't the first time British Airways has used South African associations to promote its new aircraft. Last year Bryan Habana's race against the A380 became an unexpected YouTube sensation garnering more than 2 million online hits and rating as one of the 2013 10 most watched YouTube clips in South Africa.

Street Action, an organisation dedicated to ensuring children aren't forced to live on the streets, is hoping that the latest video will prove at least as popular. For every 100,000 views it generates, British Airways will donate a ticket. Streetwise works with organisations in Burundi, Kenya and South Africa, including Umthombo Street Children in Durban, which is known for engaging children through its pioneering surfing programme.