Swaziland’s
new King Mswati III Airport is not fully licensed to operate, despite claims
from the kingdom’s civil aviation authority that it is.
The Regional Director of the International Civil Aviation Organisation
(ICAO), Meshesha Belayneh, has told the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
(OSISA) in South Africa that
Swaziland still needs to follow due process before the ICAO can issue a licence
for the new airport.
OSISA published this information nearly two weeks after the airport,
previously known as Sikhuphe, was officially opened by King Mswati on 7 March
2014.
Doubts were first expressed by the global
news agency AFP that the airport was not fully licensed. Following this, Swaziland
Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Director General Solomon Dube was quoted by
the Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland, ‘The new airport is fully
licensed.’
Dube told
the newspaper, which is in effect owned by King Mswati, ‘We could not have let the
King open something that is illegal.’
Dube said all the necessary paperwork had been signed and endorsed. He
added that ICAO Regional Director Belayneh was himself present at the official
opening which, ‘meant that everything was in order’.
Dube said the licensing of the facility meant it was ready for use by
the public.
Even after opening the airport, which so far has cost an estimated E3
billion (US$300 million) to build, and was completed at least four years behind
schedule, remains controversial. No commercial planes have flown to the airport
and no airline has formally announced that it intends to use the airport.
In an analysis of
the airport’s future, OSISA said there were still many serious questions
about the sustainability of the airport, ‘including when will it open for
business, how will it lure additional airlines to use its services, how will it
compete with the airports in Johannesburg and Maputo, and will it ever get
close to its full capacity of 360,000 passengers each year - which is more than
five times as many as currently used by the existing airport at Matsapha’.
King Mswati has repeatedly said he wants Swaziland to be a First World
nation by 2022.
OSISA said, ‘While the King's critics find the idea of transforming
Swaziland into a developed state and economic powerhouse within eight years
laughable, especially given the fact that almost two-thirds of the population
still live below the poverty line, Mswati can now point to the (long overdue)
airport as proof that the country is moving in the right direction - regardless
of whether the airport ever attracts the desired traffic or justifies its vast
costs.’
It went on, ‘By finishing its construction, he has proved some of his
detractors wrong since many people believed that it would never be finished.
‘But here are many other criticism and questions to answer - and no sign
that they will be at the moment. For now, the King Mswati III International
Airport - as its name suggests - will continue to be viewed by most Swazis as
the monarch's biggest vanity project rather than (as he clearly believes) his
crowning glory.’
See also
AIRPORT MOVE
WILL BANKRUPT AIRLINK
KING’S AIRPORT
LACKS DISASTER PLAN
‘SWAZI PRINCE
TOOK AIRPORT BRIBE’
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