Top South African international airport lying completely idle

The Durban International Airport, which served as the city’s primary air travel hub for six decades, is lying completely idle and paralysed by legal and political wranglings.

The Louis Botha Airport, renamed Durban International Airport in 1994 following democratic elections, was opened in 1951.

The airport, situated to the south of the city, was the major hub servicing Durban and enjoyed a large volume of domestic flights.

At its peak, it was the third most popular airport in South Africa and served millions of travellers annually.

However, it had a challenge. Its 2.4-kilometre runway was too short for a Boeing 747 and other large aircraft to take off, restricting its international appeal.

Durban lost almost all its international flights, which means travellers landed at OR Tambo in Johannesburg or the Cape Town International Airport.

To address this problem, King Shaka International Airport took over from the Durban International Airport as the city’s primary airport.

King Shaka International Airport, located in La Mercy, approximately 35 km north of Durban, opened its doors to passengers on 1 May 2010.

It is much larger than the Durban International Airport and has a 3.7-kilometre runway, which could accommodate larger aircraft.

King Shaka International Airport boasts 34 airport bays, higher than the old airport’s 24, and has 16 airport bridges, which the Durban International Airport did not have.

Where the old airport could only handle 4.4 million passengers annually, the new airport can handle 7.5 million.

The King Shaka International Airport also has more check-in counters, a wider selection of self-help kiosks, and a bigger airport terminal.

It also more than doubled the retail space, from 2,900 square meters to 6,500 square meters, and increased the number of outlets from 23 to 52.

King Shaka International Airport is better in every than the older Durban International Airport, which is why it was developed and selected as the city’s primary airport.

Durban International Airport deserted

In 2012, Transnet bought the Durban International Airport’s terminal building, runways, and 800 hectares of open fields from the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) for R1.85 billion.

Transnet planned to develop the former Durban International Airport into a “dig out” mega container port for heavy modern cargo vessels.

The state-owned enterprise said that once the project was completed, it would triple the Durban port’s cargo capacity.

However, this project never materialised, and Transnet shifted its focus to resolve the mounting projects at the existing Durban port.

With the airport lying idle, a private company, Seaworld Aviation, unveiled an ambitious plan to revive it.

Seaworld Aviation envisaged smaller airlines using it as a hub to get tourists to Durban’s Southern coastline.

Transnet signed a ten-year lease with Seaworld Aviation in 2017 which gave it the rights to operate the airport until 2027.

However, these plans did not materialise as Transnet and Seaworld have engaged in a legal battle regarding the contract.

In 2022, Citizen reported that Transnet had failed to evict the company operating from the old Durban airport after the lease was cancelled.

Transnet says it cancelled the lease in 2018 because the company utilised the premises in breach of the agreement.

“As soon as the tenant took over, they started subletting it to businesses that have nothing to do with aviation,” it said.

In a strange turn of events, the old airport building’s new tenants people broke down walls, cut through buildings, and repurposed storage tanks meant for aviation fuel.

In August 2024, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced it was investigating allegations of serious maladministration within Transnet.

This investigation included the lease agreement concerning the old Durban International Airport premises.

The premises included the runway, tarmac, apron, taxiways, old terminal building, ATNS building, security building, Maritime School, and SAA Site.