New Swazi airport due this year

The completion date for Swaziland’s long-delayed new international airport will likely be mid-2013, but commencement of actual operations may yet be years away. Located in the lowveld hamlet of Sikhupe, about 90 minutes east of Mbabane, the airport was announced in 2000 as one of government’s high-priced Millennium Development Projects intended to boost economic activity in the country. The acting director of the Millennium Projects Management Unit, Patrick Mnisi, said construction work would conclude in April 2013 and be followed by three months of training for staff prior to the airport opening. However, Mnisi said plans could go awry if government finances were not available. Lack of funding has thwarted airport completion since its original announced opening, then set for 2010. Government’s continuing financial difficulties are likely to worsen in 2013, according to the IMF, causing concern for contractors who have already shut down construction several times as a result of non-payment. Even if the airport were to be finished and staffed, no airline has committed to use the facility. Swaziland Airlink is the only carrier flying commercially into and out of the country, and would have to move to Sikhupe against its wishes if government forces the move by shutting the current national airport at the Matsapha Industrial Estate. With air freight into Swaziland virtually nonexistent and with road travel time from Ortia to the Swazi border only three hours, which is not significantly greater than road travel time from Sikhupe to Mbabane, shippers are not troubled by delays in Sikhupe’s opening. The Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) will run the airport. SWACAA’s corporate affairs director Sabelo Dlamini said that when airlines commit to utilising the airport, it usually takes three years for a carrier to begin service. That would mean the airport would not actually have any commercial flights before 2016, assuming an airline commits to Sikhupe this year. No agreement has been reached with SA or Mozambique over use of their airspace for air routes to the new airport.