FLUG REVUE September 2005: Johannesburg airport is largest in Africa

September 2005

JOHANNESBURG: AFRICA´S BIGGEST AIRPORT

By Dierk Wünsche

South Africa is growing both as a tourist destination and as an economy, and this trend is continuing, according to Bryan Thompson, Assistant General Manager Airport Operations, in an interview with FLUG REVUE. Thompson predicts that the total number of passengers handled this year will come to around 14.6 million. To put this in perspective, the rival Cape Town International Airport is expecting 5.4 million passengers with 46,222 landings and Durban International Airport 2.8 million passengers with 22,418 landings. This makes Johannesburg International the most important airport in the entire African continent. Well over 100 companies have operations at the airport.

The operator of Johannesburg International Airport is the Airports Company South Africa Ltd (ACSA). This company, which was formerly state-owned, was partially privatised in 1993 as a result of an official resolution by the South African Parliament, and today it is the biggest airport operator in Africa. In 1998 the Italian Aeroporti di Roma acquired 20 percent of the equity in the company and thus became a strategic partner. ACSA currently operates ten airports in South Africa: the three international airports of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, plus Port Elisabeth, East London, Bloemfontein, George, Kimberley, Upington and Pilanesberg, which serve the regional and domestic markets. Between them, these ten airports handle over 400,000 takeoffs and landings per year.

Over the last few years, ACSA has been singled out for several distinctions, winning the African Airport Award for modernisation of Johannesburg International Airport three years in a row between 1999 and 2001. Just how self-assured the company is can be seen from its annual reports, according to which its vision for the future is to become the world's leading airport operator.

According to Thompson, Johannesburg International Airport's leading position in the traffic system of South Africa is due above all to the excellent links with long-haul and connecting flights. “Incoming long-haul flights from Europe are handled in the morning hours from 6am to 10am. In the evening hours between 6:30pm and 11pm this traffic heads back towards Europe, to Amsterdam, Atkins, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Paris and Zurich and also to Atlanta and New York in the USA. On top of this, during the day it handles departures for destinations in Asia (Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore), Australia (Perth, Sydney) and South America (Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo). The domestic traffic is handled in three waves: in the early hours of the morning, around midday and in the early evening. In this way passengers can conveniently access the network of long-haul flights to the other four continents or use off-peak services in point-to-point services. There are flights bound for the important South African metropolises of Cape Town and Durban every 20 minutes between 6am and 9:40pm (JNB departures). The Johannesburg-Cape Town route is, moreover, one of the most densely frequented routes outside Europe. In addition to South African Express, BA Comair (a franchise project run by British Airways), Nationwide Air and Interlink, these routes are also flown by the South African low-fare airlines of Kulula (an affiliate of Comair) and 1 Time Airlines.” Thompson emphasises the phrase “low-fare airlines” as truly “low-cost airlines” are not feasible in southern Africa at the present time. “Those airlines need smaller airports outside the population centres in order to be profitable. But as good roads or traffic connections to smaller airports are often not available in Africa or else their coverage is limited – after all, the distances involved are huge – low-cost airlines will not be able to operate from there. Moreover, a number of South Africa's neighbours have no air transport connections to European or overseas destinations, or only limited ones. Johannesburg therefore sees its catchment area as not confined to South Africa. It attracts passengers from far beyond its borders in the entire sub-Sahara area.”

Against this background there is a tight route network to the most important destinations in the neighbouring states. Thus, the destinations available include the Ivory Coast Republic, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Uganda, Botswana, Ruanda, Nigeria, Gabun, Angola, Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia. These routes are used not only by regular business travellers but also by passengers from the semi-commercial “shopping traffic” sector. For example, passengers come to Johannesburg to purchase modern electronic equipment and spare parts that are either simply not available in the neighbouring states or else are very expensive. “In some cases this leads to absurd situations at the check-in counters,” says Thompson with a grin on his face. “Many passengers have no qualms about declaring cages containing poultry, animals of all sizes and species and even complete passenger car windscreens as their hand luggage.” It is unlikely that anything will change quickly as regards the massive volume of baggage. The aircraft employed, often older Boeing 727's, are frequently operating at the limits of their payload capacity. Just how important the goods traffic is for many countries is illustrated by the example of Angola. Virtually every day a Boeing 747-300 Combi is employed by Air Angola on the Luanda-Johannesburg route to transport huge quantities of fresh foodstuffs.

When asked which additional destinations Johannesburg International airport would like to fly to, Thompson refers to the high utilisation of the airlines flying to and from Europe. With a seat-load factor of around 90% over the year as a whole and bearing in mind that there are a lot of over bookings, there is plenty of scope for growth here in terms of frequency, aircraft size and also destinations. “London on its own currently enjoys six daily flights from British Airways, Nationwide, SAA and Virgin. There are four services per day to Frankfurt with Lufthansa and South African Airways. Sadly, Brussels has fallen by the wayside since Sabena went bankrupt. Austrian and Turkish Airlines have also discontinued their services. If they were to return in the future they would be very welcome, as is the start of services by Alitalia. Then the Hungarian national carrier, Malev, which already operates chartered services to Durban, would also be a welcome addition at Johannesburg International Airport. China Airlines and Air India are planning to commence flights to Johannesburg this year. Then, as regards the Middle East, we have an A340-500 service operated by Emirates, while Etihad also has plans to fly to South Africa. They are even planning to use the Airbus A380 in due course.”

Over the last few decades, Johannesburg airport, which was opened in 1952, has undergone a wide-ranging programme of renovation and expansion. 268 million rand (around Euro 33 million) was invested in the arrivals area of Terminal A (International), which was opened in 1999. The same year spacious waiting and duty-free areas with an array of shops were installed in the departures area of the terminal. A five-star hotel opposite Terminal A opened in 2001. This building is next to a multi-storey car park which includes accommodation for the offices of the car hire companies. A brand-new terminal for domestic services was commissioned in February 2003.

Terminal B, which cost 450 million rand (around Euro 56 million) of investment, is a light, open construction. It offers passengers a wide selection of restaurants, shops and service facilities, such as a 24-hour clinic for medical emergencies, over several levels, which are connected with convenient moving walkways and numerous lifts. In April 2004 after an eight-month construction period a transfer corridor between the new Terminal B and Terminal A was opened officially. This enables passengers to transfer directly from national to international flights without having to leave the terminal. Baggage can now be checked in from the departure airport right through to the final destination.

In 2010 South Africa will be hosting the world football championships and it is expected that this will attract about 20 million visitors. To cope with the rising numbers of passengers and also to secure its position as the best airport in Africa, the ACSA operating company is planning to further expand the international area over the next five years. A first step will be to extend the parking positions and the relevant gate capacity. At present international flights are handled at up to eight gates. Over the next few years, a new pier costing Euro 31 million is to be built in front of Terminal A, significantly expanding the waiting room and gate area for international departures. In order to be able to handle future volumes of passengers comfortably, a central terminal building complete with waiting rooms, lounges, gates over several levels and extensive shopping and restaurant areas is to be built between Terminal A and Terminal B. The new terminal, which is expected to cost Euro 149 million, should be finished by 2009. It will virtually double handling capacity at the airport.

At the same time the ACSA operating company is discussing the possibility of a high-speed train link with the regional government of the Gauteng province. These trains would then start and stop at a station directly in the new central terminal. Meanwhile Johannesburg also has to prepare itself for the increased traffic on the apron. With the new international pier, the airside facilities (air bridges, kerosene and water supply, electrical connections etc.) will at the same time be expanded to cater for wide-body aircraft the size of the A380. New parking positions will also be created. New investment is to flow into the runway system as well. Thus ACSA is planning to construct high-speed taxiway turn-offs and emergency bays. The associated costs are estimated at around Euro 10 million. Landside, the company is considering building another multi-storey car park to cater for the higher volume of passengers. Extra space is also to be provided for staff to park their own vehicles. These two projects are expected to cost Euro 17 million between them.

The airport is also expanding in the cargo area. Here too it fulfils a hub function. Scheduled cargo services are operated to Amsterdam (KLM), Entebbe (MK Airlines), Harare (Phoebus Apollo), Lagos (MK Airlines), Luxembourg (Cargolux and MK Airlines), Maastricht (Cargolux) and Nairobi (Cargolux). South African cargo airlines, such as Phoebus Apollo, fly to numerous airports in the neighbouring states, using the DC-3 and DC-4. Thus over 270,000 tonnes of freight were handled at Johannesburg International Airport in 2003. The airport's cargo centre is up against its capacity limits. ACSA is therefore planning to build another cargo terminal with links to the arterial highways of the province of Gauteng. Along the north-eastern perimeter of the airport, directly next to the new cargo terminal, a logistics centre is to be built. Next to it are 140 hectares of uncultivated land for further development plans.

From page 68 of FLUG REVUE 9/2005

Last updated 18 August 2005

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