Tshwane national airport revived, after downgrade dilemma
For about four years, Tshwane has been attempting to persuade national carriers to resume flights at the airport, however, they had no success due to a demotion in ranking.
Tshwane’s only national airport has made a resurgence with an upgraded licence for a category 5, meaning it now has better maintenance and security.
This will allow the airstrip to handle scheduled commercial services, according to MMC for roads and transport Katlego Mathebe.
The airfield in the north of Pretoria had its ranking downgraded because of infrastructure issues such as nonvisible road marking, debris on the runways, taxiways’ leaking water and worrisome security infrastructure, which necessitated upgrades at the airport.
The Wonderboom National Airbase was downgraded to Category 2 in October 2019, however on August 8, 2023, it upgraded its aerodrome licence status from Category 2 to Category 5 following positive recent three-month oversight audit by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).
Mathebe said the new status was in proportion to the airfield aeronautical infrastructure, safety and security.
“The airport’s administrative systems, operational procedures, infrastructure, serviceability of aeronautical facilities and equipment, security measures and other aviation elements went above the minimum thresholds of civil aviation standards and were all found ultra-satisfactory by SACAA.”
Mathebe said this was a sign that Tshwane was competent to manage the airport, despite the Tshwane mayor planning to ditch the asset due to the high debt the municipality faced.
She said the airfield would now boost Tshwane’s economy by attracting needed investments in air commerce.
“This status essentially means that the airport is now statutorily allowed to handle commercial scheduled airline services without any airport emergency services and compromise of safety and security.
“The current development now allows the city to confidently open its doors and welcome interested airline operators that wish to introduce scheduled flight services at the airport.”
She said the metro would commit itself to ensuring capacity to enable the airfield to deliver its mandate for economic development.
The airport had been marred by back-and-forth litigation over the years as it would host national flights to Cape Town, however, they were cancelled in May 2018 because of “non-profitability” issues.
Tshwane had been trying to interest several national carriers to resume flights to the airport – with no luck.
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