The Cape Winelands Airport project is on the horizon, with plans to create a state-of-the-art facility that prioritises sustainability and community benefits.
Image: Supplied
The Cape Argus can reveal the wheels are in motion for the much-anticipated construction of the Cape Winelands Airport to start towards the end of the year, with aviation-related infrastructure at the top of the list.
Construction for the airport in Durbanville is set between 18 to 24 months, with the final commission and completion by the year 2028.
During an exclusive interview on Monday, Deon Cloete, managing director of the Cape Winelands Airport, said the expansion would see the completion of a 3.5 km runway, parking bays for taxis and aircrafts, and a boutique terminal.
Cloete is a veteran in the field and held leadership roles at Cape Town International Airport and King Shaka International Airport.
The Cape Winelands Airport has been dubbed the economic revitalisation of the region, which will secure 58 561 job opportunities between 2027 and 2050 amounting to R7.7 billion.
By the year 2028, the Northern District would have given birth to its first domestic and international travel airspace, which is expected to carry 1.7 million passengers.
According to Cloete, their vision would now materialise physically as plans, maps and meticulous budgets are gathered for its construction, which is set to take place over phases.
“We hope to begin construction toward the end of this year.
"It is an estimated 18–24-month construction programme taking us to early 2028 for full and final commissioning.
"Meanwhile, the teams are hard at work looking at the programming and all associated considerations,” said Cloete.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we will be in a position to begin construction toward the end of the year.
“A large-scale development of this nature takes time. It is important to us that we prepare and plan appropriately, that we capture the inputs from industry role-players and that we ultimately deliver a quality product that everyone can be proud of. The team is focused.
“Our first build as we refer to it, will focus on all aviation-related infrastructure. This includes realigning one of the existing runways.
“Our plans are to build it to 3.5km so that the bigger wide body aircraft such as the A380 can land on it.
"We will build all airside related infrastructure such as rapid exit taxi-ways, aircraft parking bays, known as aprons and aircraft storage facilities called hangars.
“A boutique terminal building will be built, offering a range of contemporary amenities and services designed to enhance the travel experience.”
Cloete said with the terminal boutique, they would also be focusing on their lounge and reception areas including retail and food outlets as well as cargo handling.
“These include efficient check-in counters with advanced technology for swift processing, spacious and comfortable waiting lounges with ergonomic seating, and a diverse selection of high-quality restaurants and boutique shopping outlets, ensuring that passengers have access to a wide array of food and retail options to suit their preferences and needs. Cargo handling facilities will be built, fuel storage facilities are important and will be built as well as other related supporting infrastructure.
“Our plans include a hotel and warehousing and distribution in phase one, but this will only be built based on demand.”
An artist impression of the R7.7 billion Cape Winelands Airport.
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Cloete said since its inception, the ideology for an environmentally friendly airport led it to offer Africa’s first digital tower and be off the grid for water and electricity, limiting the impact on services and the City’s resources.
When asked whether they managed to earmark their R7 billion investment to make their dream come true, Cloete added that they were positive and still working on receiving more investment.
“Our funding initiatives have yielded positive results. To date, we have successfully secured external funding from a variety of sources. Our funding drive still continues.”
As with any construction on the larger scale, the Environmental Impact Assessment and public participation process had to be considered with patience.
"Our aspirations are to submit the final impact report to the authorities in the first quarter of this year for their consideration,” he detailed.
“To date we have run three public participation processes with a fourth round scheduled later this month.
"The plans are to once again host an open day, offering the public an opportunity to interact with the specialists and obtain first hand inputs and perspectives on the impacts of the project.
"This will be advertised and we encourage anyone interested to attend.”
As the country sees a continuous decline in employment and poverty, Cloete said the timing could not have been more perfect.
“The positive impacts of the airport are immense, most notably being the opportunity to create employment. I was fortunate to lead, at the time, the ACSA (Airports Company South Africa ) team in Kwa-Zulu Natal, ahead of the King Shaka Airport development.
“I was responsible to secure all the required approvals including the environmental authorisation, handing over of the site to the contractor for the construction of the airport.
“This time it will be slightly more challenging because in that previous times there were teams that could take over the new airport infrastructure and operations. Now there is no operational team to take over and we have to build a team from scratch. While it’s challenging it also presents a huge opportunity. An airport campus is diverse with a huge value chain – from security, to cleaning, to maintenance to restaurant staff, airline staff and so forth - the positive impact and the potential for jobs are immense."
He said like with any project, they were prepared for the negative as well.
“The airport has served the region for just over 80 years and we refer to the airport as the Grand Old Lady.
"This Grand Old Lady is getting ready to be transformed but while we will build a modern airport, we still want to celebrate the history of the airport and aviation at large,” he added.
"Our intentions are to ensure that the neighbouring communities like Fisantekraal are direct beneficiaries of the airport expansion.”
The City of Cape Town said in their response on the latest developments regarding the EIA and public participation: “Please refer your questions to the Developer or the Western Cape Government at this stage.”
Earlier, the City’s mayco member for Economic Growth, James Vos, said he was proud of the endorsement for the development, which would see the processes of public participation.
The executive board of directors include veterans in the airspace industry who see to management, advertising, planning, development to security.
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