OR Tambo International Airport should be expanded and not closed down to make way for a new airport in order to cope with the huge expected increases in air-passenger flows in the province, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Tuesday.
OR Tambo airport communications manager Nothemba Noruwana said that media reports that they were considering shutting down OR Tambo airport to make way for a new one with expanded capacity were incorrect.
She said closing the airport had only been one of a host of options looked at while constructing a master plan, but that it was not part of their proposal at the moment.
Noruwana said at the moment the solution they were looking at was expanding the infrastructure of the airport.
However, she said even this plan was still at an early stage, which was yet to undergo full refinement and consultation with the Transport Ministry and the public, and an environmental assessment.
Passenger traffic at OR Tambo airport is expected to more than double from about 17-million people passing through the airport in 2007 to about 30-million passengers expected in 2015.
Noruwana said that Acsa had looked at building a completely new expanded capacity airport and closing OR Tambo down, or building another airport somewhere else in addition to OR Tambo, but at the moment felt expanding OR Tambo would be the best solution.
Expanding the airport would have the ”most minimal amount of disruption environmentally and socially”, said Noruwana.
She said factors such as the investment already made and infrastructure already built in the area had to be taken into consideration.
How an expanded airport would be linked to transport systems — such as how OR Tambo airport would be connected to the Gautrain rapid rail link — would also need to be investigated, she said.
Noruwana said Acsa had met Transport Minister Jeff Radebe last Saturday to discuss some details of the expansion proposal.
They would meet again next week after working out further refinements.
After this they hoped to embark on a public-participation process with affected communities such as those in Bonaero Park and Atlasville.
This public-participation process would have the power to refine the proposal or even change it completely, said Noruwana.
She said the confusion caused by the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled June 19 meeting with communities of possibly affected areas was regretful.
Acsa hoped to meet with the communities as soon as possible to be able to put forward and discuss suggestions.
At this stage land expropriation would only be an absolute ”last-case scenario” if people dug in their heels.
Noruwana said that if land acquisition did become necessary, they hoped that a willing-buyer, willing-seller system could be negotiated.
Noruwana also said an independent environmental consultant approved by the public would be appointed to work on an expansion plan.
If all the consultation processes went through as planned, the proposed phasing of expansion would see construction of a new terminal, to be built midway between two existing runways, begin in two to three years.
One runway would be expanded in 2015 or 2016 and construction on a completely new one would begin in 2022, if the plan went through.
By 2022, 55-million people were expected to pass through OR Tambo airport, she said. — Sapa