Swaziland’s controversial new airport gets the royal nod

Questions raised over ‘white elephant’ status JAMES HALL MBABANE – King Mswati recently toured the first completed runway at the controversial new international airport at the hamlet of Sikhupe, 75 minutes east of Mbabane by road, thus giving his “blessing” to the project. The R550 million facility, due to open in 2007, was designed to allow large jet aircraft to land in the country, which is currently impossible at the country’s only commercial airport at the Matsapha Industrial Estate outside Manzini. SAA Airlink Swaziland, which handles the Johannesburg to Swaziland route, said it would prefer to stay in Matsapha, because Swaziland’s air passengers are largely business people. The airline Swaziland suspended service to the country entirely during the Christmas-New Year’s holidays because of a drop in the number of business passengers. Supporters of the new airport predict new opportunities for airfreight business, thus allowing new industries like cut flower cultivation to bloom in the country because their products depend on air transport to market. Freight carriers at Matsapha contacted by FTW wondered what other industries would use the airport for cargo export. “The airport is touted as an alternative to Johannesburg International for cargo going to South Africa, but the road travel time required to South Africa and the delays at customs at the border make any advantage problematic,” one road transport company manager said. Sceptics say that the new airport will also face competition for air freight customers from the rehabilitated airports at Maputo and Durban, the expanding Johannesburg International, and even the Nelspruit-Kruger Park airport, all within relatively close proximity.