Johannesburg International airport’s new, R44-million transfer corridor will be operational in early April, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Thursday.
At the same time the Ekurhuleni municipality declared that its R55-million power-grid upgrade to the airport is also near completion.
Acsa spokesperson Jacqui O’Sullivan said the development was necessitated by the airport’s huge growth over the past 10 years.
In 1993, about 6,4-million passengers used the airport, compared with the almost 13-million passengers who now use the facility. This is an increase of just more than 100%.
”An average of 36 000 passengers move through the airport daily,” she said.
In the same vein, the airport recorded just more than 75 000 air traffic movements in 1993, compared with 177 000 in 2003 — a 135% increase.
O’Sullivan explained that the new transfer facility would streamline the movement of passengers between domestic and international flights by offering transferring passengers a seamless connection through the airport. This facility will be supported by a newly developed automated baggage through-check system.
Bongani Maseko, general manager of the airport, said the upgrades were required in order to meet projected passenger numbers for the future.
He said figures showed an expected increase of three million commuters within the near future from the current 13-million passengers a year.
”As a hub airport, [Johannesburg International] has a focus to maximise the efficient processing of passengers and goods. The challenge is to find an even balance between our infrastructure and the industry’s needs,” he declared.
O’Sullivan added that this move also necessitated a power upgrade, which the Ekurhuleni municipality has agreed to sponsor.
The executive mayor of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, Duma Nkosi, said a super substation had been constructed in Isando, close to the airport, to provide a ”highly reliable” power supply to the airport.
”Future phases of the project will take place during 2004 and 2005, once all the phases of the airports development had been completed,” he said. — Sapa