Airport upgrade will cater for new A380

Spanish loan facilitates improvements Kevin Mayhew THE SPANISH government has granted Namibia a Euro 32.6m loan to begin upgrading all its major airports – including an upgrade to a runway and associated infrastructure that will make the Walvis Bay Airport the first in the southern hemisphere to commence improvements to meet the needs of the giant A380 launched by Airbus recently. According to a director of Windhoek Consulting Engineers, Hendrik Kruger, the completed series of upgrades will improve the airports of Walvis Bay, Luderitz, Windhoek Eros, Windhoek International and Ondangwa as well as the Windhoek Eros Area Control Centre. A runway at Walvis Bay Airport is to be upgraded to cater for the A380 while the other centres will be given electronic communication improvements. Work at Walvis Bay Airport commenced on March 25 and installation of electronic communications began in early April. The main contractor is Spanish company Indepada through its three subsidiaries Ineco, Page and Defex, and completion of all aspects of the contract will be August 2006.