Just as Swazi
Airways closed without once
flying, one newspaper in Swaziland is talking up the prospects for King Mswati
III Airport.
The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reported
on Friday (3 August 2017) a ‘100 percent Swazi owned company’ called Ligwalagwala Airways had secured a lease of a
50-seater aircraft and intends to fly to Maputo in Mozambique.
The
newspaper said the company director wanted to remain anonymous.
The
whole company seems also to be anonymous as an Internet search for Ligwalagwala
Airways failed to come up with a single hit.
King
Mswati Airport – formerly known as Sikhuphe – was built in the wilderness in
south-east Swaziland and has been described outside the kingdom as a ‘vanity
project’ for King Mswati and a ‘white elephant’. The King rules as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch.
At present only one airline
uses the airport for journeys to Johannesburg.
Last week it was officially
declared that Swazi Airways the
national airline of Swaziland that was created with fanfares and claims it
would serve routes across Africa had closed down with all 23 employees
retrenched.
There has also been constant misinformation about the
prospect of airlines choosing to use the airport.
In October 2009 King Mswati claimed Etihad Airways
from the Gulf
State of Abu Dhabi was showing ‘deep interest’ in using the
airport. Nothing has been heard since.
In May 2011 the Swazi Observer
reported Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Marketing
and Corporate Affairs Director Sabelo Dlamini
saying, ‘We have established possible routes which we want to market to the
operators. Some of the proposed routes from Sikhuphe are Durban, Cape Town,
Lanseria Airport in Sandton, Harare and Mozambique.’ Nothing happened.
In June 2012 he told
Swazi media that at least three airlines from
different countries had ‘shown interest’ in using the airport, but he declined
to name them. He remained
optimistic about the prospects for the future and
said SWACAA was talking to airlines in other countries as well. Nothing
happened.
Then in February 2013 SWACAA Director General Solomon
Dube told
media in Swaziland, ‘We are talking to some including Kenya
Airways, Ethiopian Airline and various Gulf airlines.’ Nothing happened.
In March 2013 SWACAA
claimed five airlines had signed deals to use the airport when
it eventually opened, but an investigation
by Swazi Media Commentary revealed that two of the airlines
named did not exist. It also said Botswana Airways would use the airport, but
it has not.
In October 2013 SWACAA claimed it had targeted
small and medium business travellers to use the airport. It
said low-cost airlines were interested in using it for business travellers who
might want to fly to nearby countries ‘on a daily basis’.
In March 2016 Minister of Public Works and Transport
Lindiwe Dlamini said
Air Mauritius would fly from the airport.
In January 2016 the Swazi Observer
reported Swazi Airways was ready to fly to Dubai, Cape Town, India and Durban.
KMIII Airport was built on the whim of King Mswati. No
research was undertaken to determine the need for the airport.
Critics of the airport argued for years that there was
no
potential for the airport. Major airports already existed less
than an hour’s flying time away in South Africa with connecting routes to
Swaziland and there was no reason to suspect passengers would want to use KMIII
airport as an alternative.
During the 11 years it took to build, the airport was
called Sikhuphe, but the name was changed in honour of the King when it
officially opened in March 2014.
The airport cost an estimated E2.5 billion (US$250
million) to build.
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.
Since it opened only one commercial passenger airline,
Swaziland Airlink, which is part-owned by the Swazi Government, has used the airport.
The airline was forced
to move from the Matsapha Airport, even though an independent
business analysis predicted the airline would go out of
business as a result.
Richard
Rooney
See also
AIRPORT
MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’
PROOF:
KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html
No comments:
Post a Comment