Current Edition >> Archives Section >> Leading Stories >> 1-14 December 2005

Free State candidate for first dedicated cargo airport in SA

Indications are that the Free State is currently a likely candidate for the establishing of the first dedicated cargo airport in South Africa - a development that could boost the economy of the province enormously.
The modern-day concept of “a dedicated cargo airport” is an airport specifically and specially designed and built to handle all aspects and types of air cargo for any international destination in a professional and expedient manner. This means that a dedicated cargo airport must inter alia comply with all strict safety standards set out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), including up to date ILS equipment (instrument landings), all required fire fighting and medical facilities, secure perimeter fencing, stringent security measures and of course specialized infrastructure.
The latter comprises amongst others state of the art facilities for storage, warehousing, refrigerating, loading and international customs clearing, while its surrounding road and rail network and secondary infrastructural back-up must be of a good standard. The dedicated cargo airport should also lend itself to the landing and take-off of large cargo aircraft, while the airport should ideally be located some 150 - 300 km away from the main economic hubs. A dedicated cargo airport is thus a separate concept from the cargo divisions of large international passenger airports.
Examples of dedicated cargo airports in the world are Vatry near Paris, Liège in Belgium, Kallax in Sweden, Nottingham East Midlands near London, Ciudad Real and Vitoria both about 300 km from Madrid in Spain and Dulles as one of several in the USA. South Africa has no dedicated cargo airport, as a matter of fact there is none on the continent of Africa.
Against this background the Free State as the most centrally situated province in South Africa and with its rather flat landscape constitutes an excellent if not the preferred candidate for the first dedicated airport in the country. It could further be argued that it is now time that Africa gets its first dedicated cargo airport and that in this respect with the foremost economy on the continent, SA should lead the way.
To this end, considerable spadework has in fact already been done and on investigation the Free State Business Bulletin found that the following centres in the province could be in the running for the establishing of a dedicated cargo airport :

Welkom : The past five years a task team of the Matjhabeng Local Municipality has done extensive homework on establishing a cargo airport at Welkom. Even overseas visits have been conducted, as well as an in-depth report solicited from a recognized international expert from the Netherlands, Mr. Ton Hens. Recently the Municipality received a consultative business plan on the cargo airport project. The latter, with potential socio-economic spin-offs, would be pivotal to turning around the declining Goldfields and Lejweleputswa economy. However, as yetthe proposed project has not received the support from provincial and central government the local authorities have hoped for.

Harrismith : It started a number of years ago with an equipped truck stop-over at Harrismith, but of late the idea is taking shape to establish a transport hub at Harrismith to facilitate heavy freight traffic on the N3 between Gauteng and KZN and also to relieve congestion at Durban harbour. The Free State Development Corporation has inter alia been involved in studies and towards the end of last year Premier Beatrice Marshoff said the Provincial Government has in principle approved the establishment of a transport hub at Harrismith as part of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy. The idea with the transport hub is to serve all three modes of transport, viz. road, rail, and traffic, but as such it would not constitute a dedicated cargo airport per se, although that might eventuate in a later phase. Be it as it may, the topography of the mountainous Eastern Free State is not conducive to cargo air traffic, while Harrismith is not so centrally situated vis-à-vis other economic hubs in SA.

Kroonstad : A centre strongly coming to the fore as a result of advanced research and planning done by an international consortium of companies, is Kroonstad. According to information received by the Free State Business Bulletin from a source involved with the consortium, the location of Kroonstad was found to be ideal on the N1 between south and north, only about an hour's drive from Greater Johannesburg, on the existing main rail links, well-suited topography, existing local Spoornet storage facilities that can be upgraded and a strong agricultural hinterland, especially with a view to dairy production. The planned project for a cargo airport at Kroonstad also includes a South African cancer treatment facility aimed at the international market and a dairy production plant structured for direct exports. Market research on these aspects have been favourable, according to the source. The project is wholly private sectorly-driven, with little or no government involvement, save the technical approvals. As far as can be ascertained, the local business sector is also not much involved, at this stage at least.Although there is strong international interest in the Kroonstad option, the go-ahead from that side apparently depends on a final decision to invest in South Africa.

Kragbron : This former coal-mining village between Sasolburg and Heilbron is, according to a source, an alternative centre being considered by the same consortium having Kroonstad as first choice. Many of the attributes in favour of Kroonstad, also apply to Kragbron, except that it is not on the N1, but then there are other obvious situational advantages. One of these is that it provides the opportunity to kick-off from scratch, i.e. establish first-class and customized facilities from the start a so-called greenfields operation. Another salient feature of the Kragbron option is that the prospective investors are considering a public-private partnership with Eskom to establish a coal-driven power station in the area to relieve the backlog Eskom is running into in electricity supply in SA. The power station idea forms part of the cargo airport package.

Bloemfontein : There is also a strong school of thought that Bloemfontein should be the pivot for a transport and distribution hub, linking up with the N1 and N8 activity route. The latter stretches from Bloemfontein / Mangaung via Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu to Maseru. It is argued that Bloemfontein is most centrally to the Free State and that the envisaged hub should also include air, road and rail freight. Bloemfontein of course disposes of massive existing Spoornet facilities.
On the negative side is the fact that Bloemfontein is relatively far from other strong economic hubs, especially Gauteng.

In discussions with some roleplayers and stakeholders in the Free State that would be concerned with the establishing of a cargo airport, the view was expressed that instead of various centres vying against each other, one should rather look at possible synergy between various centres and regions and see how perhaps the Free State as a province could best benefit. Although this sounds the route to go, it would also appear that there can be only one basic dedicated cargo airport in the province.
Other centres outside the Free State being mentioned in reports as possible cargo airport venues are Upington and Mafikeng.
Apart from economic viability, the other factor that could influence a final decision on the establishing of a dedicated cargo airport in South Africa and the Free State is of course political leveraging / infighting, but the less be said about that, the better.
It should also be borne in mind that a final decision on the establishing of a cargo airport depends on an administrative and executive process involving a range of departments and authorities.
It would appear that a dedicated cargo airport and its socio-economic spin-off is the one single project that can move the Free State economy up to a new level like none other. Incidentally, the concept of a dedicated cargo airport has never appeared as yet in a Free State provincial development plan or growth strategy.
The Free State Business Bulletin intends to keep the matter in its focus in further editions and to inform readers how the possibility might enfold.
Meanwhile inputs on the subject would be welcomed at editor@bulletinonline.co.za or fax (051) 430 7562.