Call for upgrade of PE airport appears in vain

The lack of an international airport capable of handling direct flights of wide-bodied aircraft is costing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro and surrounds jobs, says professor Richard Haines, head of the department of development studies at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). Speaking at an NMMUorganised conference on International Offsets, Countertrade and Industrial Participation in Port Elizabeth recently, Haines said it was clear that the Airports Company of South Africa had no intention of upgrading the existing Port Elizabeth airport. Plans for the extension of the runway have been on hold for around 10 years. Instead, he said, a new “industrial” international airport should be built in the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ).