/ 7 August 2006

R3,5bn to make JIA a better place

A scrum to get through passport control and luggage collection, no parking available for anyone who has come to meet you and little chance of making it to the domestic terminal in time for a connecting flight. That’s the typical Johannesburg International airport (JIA) experience.

Fortunately, OR Tambo International airport will be much better.

JIA’s owner, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), is investing R3,5-billion to relieve the current congestion. JIA’s expansion was to occur during this five-year budget cycle anyway, but the completion date has been accelerated to 2009 to help South Africa’s largest airport handle the World Cup tourism spike.

JIA will receive 67% of the R5,2-billion Acsa has budgeted to upgrade its airports by 2010. Acsa CEO Monhla Hlahla said the state-owned airports company has to finance these expansions from its own revenue without government aid.

This investment isn’t specifically for the 2010 World Cup. “2010 will be just a peak in our normal business,” she said.

JIA currently has a deep excavation where the old domestic terminal stood between the international and new domestic terminals. This is the construction site of the Central Terminal Building, the project receiving the bulk of Acsa’s investment. It will provide an indoor link between domestic and international terminals, as well as a central passenger check-in area and more gates.

This new building will raise JIA’s capacity from 18-million to 24-million passengers a year by replacing the dingy corridor that has acted as the transition terminal for the past five years. One of Acsa’s largest revenue streams comes from renting retail space. The new building is effectively a shopping centre. It will also house the airport’s Gautrain station.

The current five-year budget cycle will also see a second multi-storey parkade relieving crowding at the existing one.

Passenger volumes at JIA are likely to increase long before 2010. Delta Air Lines has managed to become the first United States airline to negotiate landing rights in South Africa. It is launching its Johannesburg to Atlanta via Dakar service in December.

Besides more airlines, bigger planes are on their way. Part of Acsa’s investment in JIA is to prepare the popular long-haul destination for the new Airbus A380, which supercedes the Boeing 747 as the largest passenger airliner. The A380 has 555 seats in a typical three-class configuration, 139 more than a 747.

Airbus has listed JIA among the few places A380s can initially fly when commercial flights commence next year.

Part of my JIA experience has always been an interminable bus ride across the apron, packed like sardines with other people who don’t smell too good after 12 hours cramped in cattle class. Luckily, Acsa is investing in one of those piers that stretch from the international terminal directly to plane parking bays.

OR Tambo International airport sounds like it will be much better than JIA. If you didn’t read the June 30 Government Gazette and have strong feelings about what Gauteng’s airport should be called, too bad — the final deadline for objections was last Monday.