Cape Town International Airport is the primary airport serving the city of Cape Town. It is South Africa’s second-busiest airport – and its operator is investing in growth
At the start of the (Northern Hemisphere) summer, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs notified Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) that it had authorised the proposed runway realignment planned by the operator Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), as well as the associated infrastructure improvements planned in conjunction with that work.
The decision followed the Department’s examination of an independent environmental impact assessment, including submissions from other interested and affected parties. The authorisation includes extensions to and realignment of the runway at CTIA, as well as associated infrastructure such as aircraft parking stands and taxiways.
Deon Cloete, general manager of CTIA: “We are indeed pleased to have reached this milestone within the environmental assessment process. It has required a great deal of planning and continuing engagement with communities to get to this point.
“This runway project is not only about the growth of the airport, it’s about unlocking the growth potential of Cape Town and the Western Cape and we are pleased to be able to further contribute to development of the region,” Cloete argues.
Future development
CTIA currently has two active runways: the primary runway and a secondary runway bisecting it. ACSA’s intention is to realign the primary runway and to construct parallel and rapid exit taxiways. The realigned primary runway will be 3,500m in length and will be built to international specifications, allowing larger (Code F) aircraft to land at the gateway. It will enable increased airport capacity. “Realigning the runway will alleviate current constraints, and will allow for future expansion of the airport,” Cloete insists.
The process of getting approval to realign the runway started in 2013, when independent environmental practitioners were appointed to lead the Environmental Impact Assessment. This took nearly four years of planning, assessment and extensive public consultation.
“The EIA process is not yet fully concluded as there is still an opportunity for appeals.,” Cloete points out., explaining: “All appeals logged will be appropriately considered by the Department. If all goes well at best construction would start in mid-2018.”
Looking at the plans in more detail, ACSA says that the expansion programme will have the following benefits:
• Enable future aircraft parking, terminal and cargo development
• Alleviate the need to undertake major runway rehabilitation on the existing runway
• Enable greater flexibility as relating to operations, infrastructure development as well as the facilitation of aircraft fleet mix (for example, the facilitation of Code F aircraft)
• Facilitate unrestricted air access into Cape Town and the region and enable growth of air traffic (passenger and cargo) as it relates to runway movements – spurring growth in tourism and economic activity
“All projects are planned through a regulated permission process. All airline and other authorities and associations together with a regulatory body provide approval for projects to go ahead. The construction project will be funded by ACSA and recouped through the agreed and regulated tariffs,” Cloete informs.
Wider connections
“As a city, we enjoy excellent connectivity with direct flights to three continents,” notes Cloete of Cape Town, South Africa’s legislative capital. “The airport has seen steady and consistent passenger growth,” he continues. “In December 2016, the airport passed the 10 million [passenger] mark [for the 2016 calendar year]. In the same month, for the first time ever, it also processed 1 million passengers.
“Reaching the 10 million passengers per year mark is an important milestone for ACSA and for the Western Cape region. CTIA is a critical gateway for the continuing growth of domestic and international tourism to the Western Cape and we have seen solid passenger volume growth over the past few years.
“The growth has been seen across all sectors (domestic, regional and international),” Cloete reports. “Most notable has been the growth on the international front. We’ve seen players such as Thomas Cook come on-stream and British Airways, connecting the city directly to Gatwick for the first time. Last year, for the peak season Lufthansa Airlines maintained services operating to Frankfurt and Munich directly. On the African front Kenya Airways started its service mid-year connecting the city of Cape Town to Nairobi, while Ethiopian Airlines improved its schedule from four to six flights per week.
“We are seeing airlines make a firm commitment to our city. As an airport, we must ensure that we create an enabling environment for them and that we have sufficient infrastructure to respond to the growth.
“The growth is also testament to the work done by the Cape Town Air Access team,” Cloete insists. The Cape Town Air Access initiative is a joint collaboration between the Western Cape Provincial Government, the City of Cape Town, ACSA, Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro and the private sector. It aims to promote better air access in the Western Cape through the establishment of more non-stop flights to strategic markets; increase non-stop connectivity to global and regional hubs; ensure there are always frequent flight schedules (a minimum of three to four times a week) through the gateway; anchor year-round services to establish supply stability to key markets; and provide a more competitive landscape that reduces ticket prices.
Future projects
There are many plans for other developments at CTIA that Cloete hopes to see fulfilled. Projects that have been proposed include:
Domestic Arrivals Refurbishment:
• With an express route to shorten walking distances
• With an expanded ‘meeter & greeter’ area and reconfigured layout
• With an expanded baggage reclaim area that will provide additional space between carousels and improve operational conditions for ground handlers
Domestic Terminal Expansion:
• Including construction of A13, A14 and A15 [stands’] terminal infrastructure to provide additional domestic departure lounge and processing capacity
• Further pier development
International Departure Lounge:
• Including re-configuration of the international terminal to provide additional international departure lounge and processing capacity to service Code E/F (such as A380) operations
Terminal 2 Development:
• Including expansion of the departure baggage hall to eliminate the current space constraints
• Addition of two international baggage carousels
• Reconfiguration of the Customs and ‘meeter & greeter’ areas.
