The Swazi Observer, a newspaper
in effect owned by King Mswati III of Swaziland, is talking up the chances of
the new airport that takes his name receiving a ‘prestigious accolade’ at the
World Airport Awards.
The airport, formally known as Sikhuphe and now called King Mswati III (KMIII)
International, opened in
March 2014 but only received its first commercial flights the following October.
The only airline to use the airport has been the part-government-controlled
Swaziland
Airlink. No other airline has said it will use KMIII which was built in a
wilderness about 70km from the main towns of Mbabane and Manzini.
Despite the inactivity of the airport, the Swazi Observer reported, ‘Given the world-class architectural
design of King Mswati III International Airport, surely the country’s newest
pride can now contend for a regional accolade in the annual World Airport
Awards.’
It went on to say the awards were, ‘the most prestigious accolades for
the airport industry, voted by customers in the largest, annual, global airport
customer satisfaction survey.’
Only a handful of customers have used KMIII, but the awards are based on
12.85 million customer nominations and include 410 airports worldwide.
The newspaper said the awards were based on customer satisfaction across
‘39 key performance indicators’ for airport service.
The fact that KMIII has next to no passengers might not matter. In 2011
the airport was shortlisted for the African
Airport of the Year Award – and it had not even been built. It was nominated
for its ‘infrastructure development, adoption of modern airport technology,
adherence to safety and security standards, new routes and human capital
development as well as good service delivery’.
The prize organisers said the ‘coveted awards’ were ‘the highest
industry honours of excellence conferred on airports’. Allegedly, the award was
made after ‘a competitive screening process by a panel of global airport
experts’.
Somehow they were able to give the ‘airport’ marks that included
‘innovative ways of marketing to airlines [and] evidence of relationship with
airlines’, even though there were no airlines using the airport, because the
airport did not exist.
In October
2013 a report from the International
Air Transport Association (IATA) said the airport was widely perceived as a ‘vanity
project’ because of its scale and opulence compared with the size and nature of
the market it seeks to serve.
In June 2013
an engineer’s report was published by the Mail
and Guardian newspaper in South Africa saying the structure of the airport
was defected and large jet
airlines would not be able to land,
In an analysis of the
airport’s future, the Open Society
Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) said there were still many
serious questions about the sustainability of the airport including, ‘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’.
In 2003, the
International
Monetary Fund said the airport 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.
King Mswati
rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
See also
PROOF:
KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS
AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html
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