And i find it hard to see how we will “lose” with only having one airport. The land is far more valuable being developed for other reasons, surely you can see that?

Let them buy the airport and lose or make money. Their problem, not yours.

The fact is the Airport will be given away to a crony and we (taxpayers) will all lose…again.

Durban airport’s runway is far too short to accomodate intercontinental flights at full capacity. The 747′s in the old days used to take off in Durban, land in Joburg and then take off from there to London. They were canned, not because there was not demand, but because it did not make economic sense to operate like that.

Emirates have specifically chosen the A330-200 as it can take off and fly the distance to Dubai from Durban. Their 777′s would not be able to. Also Dubai is alot closer than Europe, allowing them to make the flight. The A330-200 leaving Durban would not make it Europe on the current runway without a significant payload restriction.

As i pointed out previously, there are many reasons why they could not expand the airport, clearly you decided to cast these aside. If you would like to read the report please email me and i will gladly send it on. Read it, then i would like to hear from you.

On Virginia, yes the city will be running month to month leases from 2012, however there is a clear reason for this, but the city has no intention of closing the airport. I will try to find the article from 2-3 months ago where he stated that people saying the city wants to close Virginia are just looked to sow panic.

It comes across that a specific agenda is being persued with regards to the constant anti KSIA attitude. And the scary thing is that most journalists refuse to properly research things and pass opinion and hearsay as facts.

Secondly, Durban International is quite able to accommodate “heavies”. BA used to operate direct flights to the UK with 747s from there, and Emirates is flying to Dubai. So, it’s already functioning as an international airport.

Why ACSA couldn’t enlarge the terminal building, as has been suggested in the past, instead of the taxpayers having to fork out R7bn for another airport that may – or may not – ever get the traffic worthy of its creation, has yet to be adequately answered.

As for Virginia Airport, the editorial in the October edition of World Airnews comments that all leases will allegedly expire in 2012 and that thereafter they will be made renewable on a month-to-month basis, something which hardly suggests that there is a long-term vision for the airport to remain an airport.

The article is also full of total inaccuracies and i’ll-truths.

Firstly the new airport is not 50km north of the city, it may well be 50km north of the current airport, but it is only 35km north of central Durban.

Secondly, the bulk of the Durban flying public are based to the north and west of the city. Those in the north are now closer and those in the west have no further to drive than before.

Finally, who is Comair to say that the new airport will lead to a 30% drop in passenger numbers from Durban? I think you Paul, as a journalist, should dig deeper into that. What Comair is actually saying, is that because the new airport will open Durban to an international flying market which the length of the current runway has hampered it from having, airlines that currently benefit from the archaic Johannesburg hub theory are set to lose. The current poor souls of Durban that have to fork out a domestic flight on top of an international one, will start to fly internationally direct from Durban, therefore bypassing Joburg. This will hurt Kulula’s business, this is what he is worried about. This is why they are not keen on King Shaka.

Why not go dig deeper on that one?

Finally, the argument that Durban airport could keep going and that King Shaka was not needed should be put to rest. Go look at the feasibility reports (all freely available online) about staying at the current airport or moving to King Shaka. It would have been ridiculously expensive to expand the current airport and it would have eventually needed to move in the future anyway, therefore moving to King Shaka now has actually saved the country a bucket load of cash in the future.

Durban as a city has been hamstrung by an ineffective airport. This has had serious negative effects on economic growth. This new airport is there to right that wrong.

On Virgina, the city has no intentions of closign that airport. If you read all statements by the city on the matter, and you read the technical reports on the business case of Virginia, you will see that that it is vitally important to the city and they recognise this. Those spreading stories otherwise are clearly not well read. Shame.

And heck if PMB moves its airport to Camperdown like they are planning, then the opportunities for Kulula will be there. On that, why have they not looked at Margate as a destination?

The new airport offers 1000 times more good for the city than bad. Its just true that the bad is for airlines like Comair, due to Durbanites being to bypass their ancient planes for proper international airlines.

Why dont Comair use the “money” they wanted to spend on buying Durban international on some decent new planes? not the 30 year old one’s they like to put a new coat of paint on and claim to be new.