ACSA min gespin about Cape Winelands Airport

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) CEO Mpumi Mpofu believes a new airport outside Durbanville will not have a negative impact on Cape Town International Airport.

The Cape Winelands Airport is set to be launched in 2027 at the old Fisantekraal Airfield is owned and run by rsa.AERO and will be operating both local and international flights.

The development plans for the airport to incorporate the region's wine heritage into its design, with vineyards forming part of the landscape.

The site will also include open spaces with a plaza, a hotel, a conference centre, a wine-tasting experience, an outdoor amphitheatre for events, an aviation museum, and at-grade parking facilities.

Mpofu told the media on Tuesday that the new airport will not pose a threat to Cape Town International and emphasised that the two airports can operate and co-exist with each other.

Moreover, Mpofu said that she hoped that the airports could complement each other.

She said: “We are not the exclusive owners of all the airports in the country.

“When a perception is created that Acsa will prevent airports with licences from developing because Acsa thinks (doing so is) going to undermine it, it can never be so.

Mpofu said that it is not Acsa’s decision or within their mandate to decide if there should be another airport.

The Department of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority are the regulatory bodies that identify whether an additional airport is required in an area, she explained.

The CEO said that there is no competition issue between the two airports.

She adds: “This pseudo competition that is insinuated is not how aviation operates.”