{"id":865288,"date":"2026-07-02T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=865288"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:30:10","slug":"top-university-in-south-africa-partners-with-new-r8-billion-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/865288\/top-university-in-south-africa-partners-with-new-r8-billion-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Top university in South Africa partners with new R8 billion airport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cape Winelands Airport has partnered with Stellenbosch University ahead of its R8 billion expansion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airport and university have agreed to collaborate on a broad range of issues, including agriculture and food processing, spatial planning, transport and logistics, and space and aviation research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parties are also looking at ways to align academic research, industry expertise, and infrastructure development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaboration aligns with the planned expansion of Cape Winelands Airport, estimated to cost approximately R8 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is anticipated that the airport expansion will transform the airport into a significant economic hub over the coming years,” the parties said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The scale and long-term nature of the project present a unique platform for practical learning, applied research, innovation, and industry collaboration across multiple disciplines.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engineering collaboration is expected to play a central role in the partnership, with opportunities for technical cooperation, infrastructure and operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, said that the project has the ability to unlock economic growth and support emerging industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cape Winelands Airport project offers an opportunity to build a dynamic ecosystem that can unlock economic growth, support emerging industries, and position the region as a hub of innovation and opportunity,\u201d said Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The airport expansion presents a unique long-term opportunity to connect academia and industry in a way that creates meaningful economic and educational impact,” added Deon Cloete, Managing Director for Cape Winelands Airport <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial areas of potential collaboration include building student capacity via applied research opportunities linked to the airport\u2019s development and operational environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can include research projects for master’s students within the university’s engineering programme. The partnership will also look to explore further opportunities to build testing facilities and spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond aviation, the airport is expected to become a driver of regional economic development and job creation in the Western Cape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projections indicate that the development could sustain approximately 35,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction and expansion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans taking off <\/h2>\n\n\n
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The Cape Winelands Airport was initially built in 1943 and served as an operational base for the South African Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was called Fisantekraal Airfield. It became privately owned in 1993. In 2020, private investors, RSA Aero, acquired the airport\u2019s property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the airport has unveiled grand plans for a huge redevelopment to turn the property into an international commercial airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airport has also partnered with the JSE’s largest REIT, Growthpoint, which will co-develop and manage the 450-hectare mixed-use aviation precinct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growthpoint<\/a> said that construction is expected to start later in 2026, subject to approvals, with commissioning of the first phase targeted for 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The REIT noted that the project has cleared several milestones in recent months, including final environmental authorisation, the largest hurdle to date, which took five years to acquire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airport has also been awarded Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) 17 status by Infrastructure South Africa, meaning that all organs of state must prioritise its approvals and licenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Images of the Cape Winelands Airport<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The Cape Winelands Airport has signed a partnership with Stellenbosch University, with the project looking for engineering students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":789089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[19099,7140],"class_list":["post-865288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-cape-winelands","tag-stellenbosch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865293,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865288\/revisions\/865293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}