Cape Town International Airport had 39,214 passengers on its busiest day in December
Frequent flyers are going to have to brace themselves as a number of the country’s airports are about to undergo massive renovations and upgrades as part of the R21.7bn Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) infrastructure development over the next five years.
ACSA held a briefing at the Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) on Sunday afternoon to provide an overview of the operational performance of the airport following the festive travel season.
For the festive season travel, the airport looks at the period from the end of October until the end of January. During that period, there have been 11,693,874 passengers who have travelled during the CTIA.
CTIA led the three international airports in recovery from pre-COVID-19 levels, with 98% in 2024/25. O.R Tambo International Airport recorded an 89% recovery, while King Shaka International Airport ended the year on 83% recovery.
The busiest day was the 28th of December, which had 39,214 passengers pass through the airport, and in December, it was calculated that 81,2% of the flights during December were on time.
Acting Regional General Manager, Thabo Phateng, said that CTIA had its best peak season that it has ever had.
“In the previous years, we have seen several challenges and those challenges were dealt with easily, but this time around, I think we were better prepared. What made it easier is because we were better. We took lessons from previous years – starting from making sure that we’ve got proper manpower on site, from different levels of management to technicians and so on.
“We also had better space on site as well for maintenance purposes, so they could respond to issues,” he said.
Renovations and upgrades at CTIA will begin in March, when the airport will start work on upgrading the domestic arrivals. Some of the other renovations that are expected over the coming years include a new runway, expanded domestic and international terminals, and an upgraded security system.
CEO Mpumi Mpofu said: “We really are expecting that passenger movement in the airport will be somewhat disrupted, but if we show you how we’ve done for instance the ablution facilities in the airports…we phase, and we schedule the works in a way that allows us to close off particular areas while we work on them.
“We also direct passengers to create an alternative route to decant, and create alternative spaces – either temporary shelters or temporary facilities.”
She added that passengers will be redirected to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, with work proceeding on one side at a time,
“We do the best we can. We are aware of the situation, but really, when we say construction site, we’re not suggesting that there will be dust everywhere, except that we left cordoned off all the areas and made sure that the passenger flow remains confined and uninterrupted, but maybe slightly confined,” she said.
Phateng added that the expansions they are busy with are at the request of the airlines themselves.
“We don’t build for ourselves; we build for capacity. So they need a better runway, they need better delivery of infrastructure. These are things that are required by the passengers.
“We don’t just do it for the sake of building. [We’re] informed by the demands and by the expectations of the stakeholders, so it’s not a wasteful expenditure,” he said.
theolin.tembo@inl.co.za