Cape Town is set to receive a second major airport within the next few years, which will serve as an alternative to Cape Town International.
The new Cape Winelands Airport is scheduled to open in 2027 and will offer both domestic and foreign flights, accommodating much of the inbound traffic to the Western Cape.
Complementary sites
The Cape Winelands Airport was first established in 1943, with a small landing zone intended for non-commercial civilian flights.
However, the privately-owned airstrip is slated to receive a R7-billion investment which will help to convert the site into a commercial-grade airport with facilities on par with South Africa’s other major travel hubs.
In contrast to Cape Town International, which is located on the N2 leading into the city centre, the Cape Winelands terminal is located further out in the heart of Durbanville, effectively making it a gateway to the region’s famous wine farms.
Naturally, the prospect of a second global traffic centre has raised questions as to how it will impact operations at Cape Town International, but Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is not worried about the competition.
In a recent media briefing, ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu said that the Winelands site will not pose a threat to Cape Town’s traffic, and that the two sites can coexist and complement one another, according to MoneyWeb.
“We are not the exclusive owners of all the airports in the country,” she said.
“When a perception is created that ACSA will prevent airports with licences from developing because Acsa thinks [doing so is] going to undermine it – it can never be so.”
The CEO pointed to the privately-managed Lanseria Airport in Gauteng, which serves as an alternative to O.R. Tambo International, as an example of how two sites can help to alleviate traffic at a single terminal.
“We live side by side with Lanseria and we have no problems because Johannesburg long reached the threshold of only one airport operating and the level of congestion at OR Tambo justified a second airport,” said Mpofu.
The Cape Winelands Airport’s planned expansion.
The Department of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority are the regulatory bodies responsible for determining whether an area needs a second airport, based on factors such as throughput, catchment, and infrastructure capability of the existing terminal.
Cape Town has evidently reached this threshold, as the city’s main entry point has received a record number of foreign travelers within the last two years owing to its growing profile as a popular tourist destination.
Deon Cloete, the managing director of Cape Winelands Airport, stated that the intention behind the expansion is to take away some of the pressure at Cape Town.
By 2025, the newer site is predicted to account for roughly 25% of all passenger flights to the region, translating to between two and three million visitors annually.
In addition to taking a significant portion of incoming traffic, a second airport would serve as a safety net in the event that Cape Town runs into problems, as has happened on multiple occasions.
Within the last two weeks, the air hub encountered an issue where its fuel depot was damaged, causing delays for planes needing to refuel.
A second site means that traffic can be rerouted in these circumstances, and the Wineland’s new, longer runaway means that wide-body aircraft will have another space to land in an emergency situation.
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