Airport without customers ready for take-off

MBABANE – Swaziland’s King Mswati III dedicated the country’s new R3-billion airport this month and named it the King Mswati III International Airport. The controversial project will sit idle for the time being. No air carrier wants to use the facility, citing low passenger numbers to Swaziland, absence of connecting flights to other destinations and the location within 20 to 35 minutes’ flight time of three larger SA airports, including OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) in Johannesburg. Swaziland Airlink, the only airline that services Swaziland, flies only to and from Ortia, carrying 70 000 passengers annually. (The new airport will require at least 300 000 passengers annually to break even.) In a survey provided to FTW, Swaziland Airlink said it would lose passengers if forced to relocate from the airport in Matsapha because passengers would save time driving directly to Gauteng rather than to the new airport in the eastern lowveld and enduring early check in, the flight, customs at Ortia and then ground transportation to their destinations. “We will have to fly out of the new airport if they shut down Matsapha and move customs there,” a source with Swaziland Airlink told FTW. There are no warehouse facilities at the new airport to accommodate air freight, and no companies to service an airport of any kind in the hamlet of Sikhupe where the facility is located. However, air freight volumes to Swaziland have been small and easily accommodated in the luggage holds of Swaziland Airlink’s compact planes. As air freighted cargo is almost entirely destined for Matsapha this may also be delivered as swiftly and more cheaply via road freight once the Matsapha airport is closed. To address the absence of connecting flights, the director of aviation announced that the country would create its own airline. King Mswati said a new town would be built to absorb the business of all the foreign investors who will be lured to the country through the King Mswati III International Airport.