Durban shifts operations to new King Shaka International Airport
Operations at Durban’s old international airport near Prospecton have now switched to the new King Shaka International Airport at La Mercy, approximately 35 km north of Durban’s city centre. The final flight to depart from the old airport was SA528 to Johannesburg on April 30th. All four SAA aircraft that ended their flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town at the old airport were ferried to the new airport ready for operations on the morning of May 1st. The flying time between Johannesburg and Durban remains unchanged at approximately fifty minutes. The new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) has been a ground breaking co-operative project development between the National Dept of Transport, the Provincial Dept of Economic Development, the government of KwaZulu-Natal, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and the Dube Trade Port. It is also the first greenfield airport to be built in South Africa in the past fifty years.The current Durban International Airport site will first be handed over to the SA Air Force to use as a Military operating base for the 2010 World Cup, and then decommissioned as an airport. Quelle: eyefortransport |