Mpumalanga airport up for sale

Still awaiting international status Leonard Neill THE LACK of adequate freight handling facilities at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) has been cited as one of the reasons the airport’s major shareholder, ABB in Switzerland, has decided to sell off its 90% share in the venture. Farmers and organised agriculture as well as mining operations in the region have complained about the failure of the developers to include cargo operations from the opening of the airport, according to a company spokesperson. The R350million airport opened last October, but although it includes the wording ‘International’ in its title, it has still not received government approval of this status. As a result only domestic flights have been landing there, although its prime objective was to encourage use by international services bringing in tourists to the region. KMIA business development manager Ivan Phenyane is confident that South African aviation authorities will grant this status during the next two months. He says that the delay in relocating air traffic controllers from the former Nelspruit municipal airport did not materialise due to the late publishing of the changes in the Airports Information Publication, which resulted in a seven week delay. Meanwhile the ABB decision means, in reality, that the airport is up for sale. Phenyane says interested buyers have come forward, although no positive steps have been taken by any of them at this stage. “The airport developers should have realised that while waiting for the flow of tourists to come, and that will take a while, there were immediate cargo consignments available which could have been financially valuable to them had they kicked off with freight handling operations,” Gordon Griffiths, founder and former chairman of the Mpumalanga Development Investment Initiative told FTW.