Shippers shun new Swazi airport

MBABANE – Airfreight into Swaziland will have a longer distance to travel with the closure this week of the country’s original airport located at the Matsapha Industrial Estate. The Matsapha airport made it easy to air express incoming industrial inputs via the only airline that f lies into the country, Swaziland Airlink, on the air carrier’s only route, from Johannesburg. Swaziland Airlink relocated to the King Mswati International Airport last week, six months after the official opening of the facility near the eastern lowveld hamlet of Sikhupe. The first commercial f light landed on Tuesday, carrying 29 passengers. 400 000 passengers annually must use the airport to recover R1bn in construction and operating costs incurred thus far. More building still to be done includes airplane hangars and a taxiway. The Matsapha Airport saw 70 000 passengers per year. Air shippers’ “no thank you” to the new airport, located 45 minutes in light traffic from the Matsapha facility, was evident in the air freight volumes transported the first week, which were none. “Jo’burg is just hours away by road and the overnight courier services do a good job, so I don’t see why anyone would really go out of their way to use the airport there in the middle of nowhere unless Swaziland Airlink offers really good discounts to get the business,” said Charles Magongo, the manager of a wholesale business in Matsapha. Swaziland Airlink may not survive the move, according to a 2009 memo provided to FTW by the company’s general manager, Teddy Mavuso. “The road journey to (Oliver Tambo Airport) takes three hours including a stop at the border post. Total travel time (f lying) from Matsapha, including getting to the airport, waiting, f lying, going through customs and retrieving baggage at Johannesburg and taking ground transportation to the destination is on average three hours 30 minutes.” “From (King Mswati) Airport the journey in each direction will take four hours 20 minutes. With 60% of passengers on this route being point to point travellers, it is estimated that as many as 40% of these passengers and 20% of connecting passengers, or 32% of current passengers, will opt for road travel.” INSERT Why would anyone choose to use the airport there in the middle of nowhere unless Swaziland Airlink offers really good discounts. – Charles Magongo