PIETERMARITZBURG’s Oribi airport and Ulundi’s Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi airport are undergoing a R85m upgrade funded by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. However, it remains to be seen if this will translate into increased travel between the two cities and Durban.
Scheduled flights to and from Ulundi, used mainly by government employees and business people, ceased in 2004 when subsidised air services between Pietermaritzburg, Ulundi and Durban came to an end. Many officials also stopped flying to Ulundi after the provincial legislature moved from Ulundi to Pietermaritzburg.
The airport in Ulundi is still used by private aircraft, charter firms and the South African Air Force, but little maintenance has taken place there in 10 years, says Chris McLean, technical manager for the R45m upgrade.
As part of the work at Ulundi, R30m will be spent on the runway and other airport facilities, with R15m set aside for office space.
In Pietermaritzburg, a R40m runway and taxi-way revamp is under way. It is expected this will bring some consistency to the airport, where many flights have had to be diverted to Durban in the past because of bad weather.
Oribi airport had also seen a steady decline in aircraft arrivals over the past seven years, according to the provincial treasury. Other factors cited for the steady decline in activity include the recession, a lack of precision approach instrumentation, the poor state of the runway and the high price of tickets due to a lack of competition.
But the installation of new navigation equipment has resulted in a slight improvement in activity at the airport this year.
The Ulundi airport upgrade is ready to go out to tender, and three airline companies have expressed an interest to fly there. One of these will be chosen to fly two flights a day into Ulundi, with a capacity of about 60 passengers a day.
But where will the additional passengers come from?
Mr McLean says state employees make 6200 round trips by road to Ulundi from Pietermaritzburg and Durban per month, using government cars. He says it costs 30%40% more to drive than it does to fly, so the aim will be for government employees and businessmen to be considered a kind of “base” passenger load that would make the flights viable. Later, the intention will be to generate tourismrelated flights.
In addition, the population of Ulundi has increased to more than 400000 from 180000 in seven years, and the Zululand district, with more than a million people, is often described as SA’s biggest underserved community in terms of aviation services. Economic growth in the region has resulted in many business people needing to go there, says Mr McLean.
With regard to the potential for tourism, there are several reasons why he is optimistic.
The first is that the Zululand district represents the heart of Zulu culture and bus trips to Ulundi were cancelled “years ago” because the roads were so bad. In addition, the airport could be the quickest way to get to the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, SA’s oldest and second-biggest game reserve.
“People with money don’t want to drive long hours on bad roads to do their business or go on holiday,” says Mr McLean.
Another point to consider is that if the airport upgrade had not been initiated, the district would have remained without emergency health and casualty evacuation capability. There would have been no emergency flight disaster response or immediate military or police response capability by air.
Mr McLean expects the upgrade to the Ulundi airport to be completed in about 18 months.
Ironically, it is coming as the provincial government has introduced financial austerity measures, including limiting travel by its staff; travel is allowed only when considered absolutely necessary. It also does not help that the international tourism industry is in a slump, with high vacancies at hotels.
However, provincial treasury MEC Ina Cronje said earlier this year that infrastructure had been shown to be the catalyst that unlocked local, provincial and national economies.
Even if the anticipated number of new flights and passengers does not materialise in the short term, it would be a much bigger loss to see the existing aviation capacity completely eroded at the two airports, as was likely, and then to have the government rebuild the airports from scratch some time in the future.
