After claiming last month (April 2015) that
Swaziland’s white
elephant King Mswati III (KMIII) Airport was a huge success
and had confounded its critics, an aviation boss in the kingdom now says it is
not doing well because Swazi people are too poor to fly.
The Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported
twice in April 2015 that the Swaziland Tourist Authority
(STA) said there were 10,138 passengers departing the airport in January 2015
and 6,592 passengers arriving, making a total of 16,730 passengers. If these
figures were repeated each month of the year, 200,760 passengers would travel
through the airport in a year.
But, Swazi Media Commentary
exposed these statistics
as entirely bogus. There are only three flights per day
departing the airport and another three arriving. The airport serves only one
route – to OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Swaziland Airlink is
the only passenger airline that uses the airport. Airlink uses the Embraer J135
aircraft which has a maximum seating capacity of 50.
If every flight was full a maximum of 150 people per
day could depart the airport, which would make a maximum of 4,500 per month.
The 4,500 is only 44 per cent of the numbers of passengers claimed by STA. The
total possible number of passengers either departing or arriving at the airport
could not be more than 9,000 in a month: 53 per cent of the figure claimed.
Despite the obviously fraudulent figures the
Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Marketing and Corporate Affairs
Director Sabelo Dlamini said
in April 2015, ‘We are noting that the figures are
rising and for us, it points to a brighter future in aviation. It is also an
affirmation of the massive work the government of Swaziland has done over the
past five years to do right in the civil aviation industry, in particular the
construction of an airport facility travellers are happy with.’
The newspaper reported, ‘Dlamini further noted that
the drop in numbers that had been projected by critics had not happened at
all.’
The Observer,
which was described as a
‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’
by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a report on media freedom in the
kingdom, has not admitted to its readers it published fake figures on the
airport’s popularity.
On Tuesday (12 May 2015), the
Observer reported
SWACAA Director General Solomon Dube saying ‘only 70,000’ people per year used
the airport. He did not give any evidence to support the figures. The 70,000
passengers represent 35 percent of the 200,760 claimed last month.
SWACAA had previously said the King Mswati Airport,
formerly known as Sikhuphe, which opened in March 2014 would need at least
300,000 passengers a year to break-even.
Dube told
the Observer
that Swazi people did not fly because they could not afford to. This should
come as no surprise to him since seven in ten of the 1.3 million people in the kingdom
have incomes of less than US$2 per day. He said if more people used the airport
air tickets to South Africa could be reduced to E500 (US$50), without stating
this would represent about a month’s income for most Swazi people.
The Times of Swaziland
reported on Tuesday (12 May 2015) Dube also announced that
Egyptair had offered Swaziland a 268-seater aircraft. The newspaper reported
him saying, ‘the main objective of this initiative is to increase airplane
passengers by up to 200,000’.
The Times
reported, ‘Dube said courtesy of well-managed diplomatic
relations between the two States, Swaziland had been offered to utilise
services of one of Egyptair’s flights to transport passengers between Swaziland
and South Africa for 10 hours a day. He said using the flight for at least 10
hours a day could translate to about five or seven flights to the neighbouring
republic, on a daily basis.’
This claim from Dube is one of a long line of empty
promises made about the attractiveness of the airport.
In November
2013, SWACAA said that the Swazi Government was ready to
recreate the defunct Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation (RSNAC0) and
would set about purchasing a 100-seater jet, at a cost estimated by the Times of Swaziland of E700 million
(US$70 million). This compared to the E125 million budgeted
for free primary school education in Swaziland that
year. It was never explained where the money to buy the aircraft would come
from.
SWACAA said RSNAC would fly to 10 destinations in
Africa and Asia. Observers estimated RSNAC would probably need a minimum of 10
aircraft to service the routes. For that to happen, Swaziland would have to
spend about E7 billion on aircraft. Such a sum of money would bankrupt the
kingdom. To put the cost in context the Central Bank of Swaziland has estimated
the kingdom’s gross
official reserves were E8.24 billion at the month ended
November 2013.
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 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.’
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.
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.’
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’.
KMIII Airport was built in a wilderness in Swaziland
on the whim of King Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch. 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.
No other airline has publically said it wanted to
use the airport.
See also
AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’
PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html
