It may take up to three years before international airlines
use Swaziland’s Sikhuphe Airport that is set to open on 7 March 2014. If they
decide to use it at all.
No airlines have signed agreements to fly in and out the
airport that is estimated to have cost at least E3 billion (US$300 million) to
build and is at least four years behind schedule opening. Critics have dubbed the
airport a ‘vanity project’ for King Mswati III.
The King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, will conduct the opening ceremony himself, but global dignitaries
are not expected to attend.
It has been known for some years that airlines are not
willing to use Sikhuphe once it opens. And, if there had been interest from airlines
outside Swaziland, it would take them at least three years before they could be
ready to use the airport.
Sabelo Dlamini, the Swaziland Civil Aviation
Authority (SWACAA) Marketing and Corporate Affairs Director, revealed
in June 2012 that it could take three years for an airline to actually
start using the airport once it had decided to do so. ‘Normally, airline
operators need about three years to prepare for such an exercise.’ He said at
the time that Swaziland had approached three potential airlines, which he
declined to name, and they were ready to operate at Sikhuphe.
Nothing has happened since Dlamini made his statement in 2012
and no airline outside Swaziland has announced it will use Sikhuphe.
Dlamini also revealed in 2012 that no agreement had been
reached with Swaziland’s neighbours South Africa and Mozambique about which
routes planes would be allowed to take in and out of Sikhuphe. Again, no
announcement has been made that this issue has been resolved.
The only airline expected to use the airport is Swazi Airlink,
which presently flies out of Swaziland’s existing airport at Matsapha. Airlink
is a joint venture between the Swazi Government and South African Airlines and flies
one route into Johannesburg.
In February 2013 Barnabas
Dlamini, Swaziland’s Prime Minister, said, ‘Swazi Airlink will have to use
Sikhuphe as it will be our international airport.’
However, in 2011 Airlink had said it did not want to use
Sikhuphe, preferring to stay at Matsapha.
There is no news on what will happen to Matsapha Airport after
Sikhuphe opens. Matspaha is an underused airport situated minutes away by road
from Manzini, Swaziland’s commercial capital. It is also close to Mbabane, the
Swazi capital. Sikhuphe, meanwhile, is in the wilderness of eastern Swaziland,
about 80km from Mbabane.
Critics of Sikhuphe, who have dubbed the multi-million dollar
airport project ‘King Mswati’s vanity project’, have argued for years that
there is no
potential for the airport. Major airports already exist less than an hour’s
flying time away in South Africa with connecting routes to Swaziland and there
is no reason to suspect passengers would want to use the airport at Sikhuphe as
an alternative.
Completion of the airport has been delayed for years. King
Mswati had announced it would be open in time for the FIFA World Cup, played in
neighbouring South Africa in 2010.
As long ago as 2003, the International Monetary
Fund said Sikhuphe should not be built because
it would divert funds away from much needed projects to fight poverty in
Swaziland. About seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in
abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day.
Meanwhile, the King lives a lavish lifestyle, including a
personal fortune, once estimated by Forbes
magazine to be US$200 million, 13 palaces, a private jet and fleets of
top-of-the range Mercedes and BMW cars.
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