Plans for a privately-owned airport for Cape Town have been unveiled by its new billionaire owner, who promises a world-class aviation hub.
The new owner of Cape Town’s Fisantekraal airfield plans to transform it into a world-class new airport offering passengers additional choice when travelling to and from South Africa’s most popular tourist city.
Businesstech reported that South African businessman Rob Hersov recently bought Cape Town’s lesser-known Fisantekraal airfield. He intends transforming it into the Mother City’s secondary airport of choice.
THE BUSINESSMAN BEHIND CAPE TOWN’S NEW AIRPORT
Hersov heads Invest Africa, a leading pan-African business platform promoting trade and investment in Africa. He has built numerous successful companies and has worked alongside media giant Rupert Murdoch and South African billionaire Johann Rupert.
He recently returned to South Africa after years overseas and intends to expand on local investment opportunities. Establishing a secondary flight hub for Cape Town is one of these.
THE ‘LANSERIA OF CAPE TOWN’
Hersov told BizNews he had big plans for Fisantekraal. It was established by the South African Airforce in 1943 and managed by the local municipality until it was sold to a private owner in 1993. It was then bought by Hersov.
Johannesburg has two major airports for passengers travelling there on scheduled flights. OR Tambo International is the main hub for most passengers arriving on international flights and a large number of domestic flights.
Lanseria is used by several domestic carriers, and offers convenient flights for passengers needing to reach the northern and western parts of Johannesburg. Like Johannesburg, Cape Town will in future also offer an alternative option to the city’s main airport hub.
“We want to build the Lanseria Airport of Cape Town,” Hersov said, as quoted in BizNews.
MAJOR EXPANSION PLANS FOR NEW AIRPORT
Fisantekraal is 13km from the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. The airfield is surrounded by wheat and wine farms.
“We’re renaming it Cape Winelands Airport,” Hersov said.
Fisantekraal has four runways on its 150-hectare site. Two of the runways are operational and the film industry uses the other two as movie sets.
It takes large amounts of time and capital to develop airport infrastructure, and to attract passengers and airlines to a new airport. It is therefore unlikely that the Cape Winelands Airport will become a bustling secondary airport in the immediate future.
