CAPE TOWN SUPPLEMENT

Aviation in and around Cape Town is bouncing back strongly after the Covid lockdown and associated restrictions of travel.

SHORTLY BEFORE COVID HIT, Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) was finally ready to start its huge R7 billion runway re-alignment and expansion. This included upgrades to the International and Domestic terminal buildings. Under the Covid-19 pandemic the project was suspended, as was the R3.8 Billion construction of a new 3200-metre runway. Then the Covid-19 pandemic stopped all travel and the plans had to once again be put on hold.

Airline Travel

In pre-Covid operations Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) was the third largest airport in Africa, with almost eleven million passengers a year. The full recovery in passenger numbers is expected to take until, at the earliest, mid-2023, so the pressing need for the planned CTIA expansion has waned - for now.

However, taking advantage of the slowdown, Mr. Mark Maclean, Cape Town International Airport's General Manager, says CTIA has used the Covid period for developing and implementing new procedures and protocols to minimize the risk to passengers in anticipation of the return of international tourists.

The groundwork was laid by Maclean's predecessor Deon Cloete, who had developed "new end-to-end procedures" in close collaboration with key industry players i.e., non-ACSA airports such as Lanseria, local and international airlines, government and regulatory bodies. Suffice to say there has been a lot of learning with regular updates and tweaking happening along the way. We also leaned heavily on best practices recommended by the likes of IATA, ICAO, and ACI.