KING’S AIRPORT FAILS TO ATTRACT AIRLINES

Swaziland’s King Mswati III airport dubbed a vanity project for the King and a white elephant has failed to attract any new airlines in the four years since it opened, the kingdom’s civil aviation authority has admitted.
 

This was despite continued claims that airlines from across the world wanted to use the airport at Sikhuphe built at an estimated cost of US$250 million in the wilderness in southeastern Swaziland about 70 km from a major city.

Sabelo Dlamini, Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Marketing and Communications Director, told the Observer on Saturday newspaper (14 July 2018) a number of presentations had been made to airline services, but so far none had agreed to fly into the airport.

The Swazi Government also failed to launch its own airline called Swazi Airways. It was claimed it would fly to 10 countries once it had become fully operational.  The destinations were the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana. The airline closed for business in April 2017 when it became clear the tiny kingdom could not afford a single aircraft. Even so, E20 million (US$2 million) had been spent on leasing a 29-year-old Boeing 737-300 that never once flew commercially. In addition, an estimated E750,000 a month was paid to 23 airline staff who had no work to do.

There has 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. 

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 did 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 Air was ready to fly to Dubai, Cape Town, India and Durban.

KMIII Airport was built on the whim of King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as one of the world’s last absolute monarchs. No research was undertaken to determine the need for the airport.

Critics 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 sought 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. 

See also

AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html  

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html

WILL SWAZI KING’S AIRPORT EVER FLY?

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’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html  

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html

CONFIRMED: END OF SWAZI AIRWAYS

The national airline in Swaziland that was created with fanfares and claims it would serve routes across Africa has closed down and all 23 employees have been retrenched.

Confirmation of the closure and staff redundancies came through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security First Quarter (April to June 2017) Performance report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly. 

The airline closed for business in April 2017 when it became clear the tiny kingdom could not afford a single aircraft.

Even so, E20 million had been spent on leasing a 29-year-old Boeing 737-300 that never once flew commercially. In addition, an estimated E750,000 a month was paid to airline staff who had no work to do.

Swazi Airways was intended to replace the already defunct Royal Swaziland National Airways. The plan to launch the new airline came after the opening of King Mswati III (KM3) Airport. The airport, built in the wilderness in southeast Swaziland about 70 km from a major city, was the brainchild of the King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The airport that was originally named Sikhuphe was dubbed a “white elephant” and “vanity project” by critics outside the kingdom. The cost of building the airport will never be known, but estimates are that it cost at least E300 million.

The airport officially opened in March 2014 and since then the only passenger-carrying airline to use it has been Swazi Airlink, which is part-owned by the Swazi Government. Despite repeated promises from the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) that there was interest from major international airlines to fly into KM3, none have down so.

In December 2015, the Sunday Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, and described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a review on media freedom in the kingdom, as  a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ reported, that Swazi Airways would fly to 10 countries once it had become fully operational.  The destinations were the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana. 

At the end of March 2017 it became clear that the kingdom could not afford the airline. Swazi Airways decided to drop its lease on the Boeing, but was left with a E6 million debt to the company that leased it.

See also

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html

 

AIRLINK FORCED TO USE KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/airlink-forced-to-use-kings-airport.html

 

AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html

END OF SWAZILAND’S NATIONAL AIRLINE

A grand plan by Swaziland to create a national airline has crashed after it became clear the tiny kingdom could not afford a single aircraft.

Even so, E20 million had been spent on leasing a 29-year-old Boeing 737-300 that never once flew commercially. In addition, an estimated E750,000 a month continues to be paid to airline staff who have no work to do.

Swazi Airways was intended to replace the already defunct Royal Swaziland National Airways. The plan to launch the new airline came after the opening of King Mswati III (KM3) Airport. The airport, built in the wilderness in southeast Swaziland about 70 km from a major city, was the brainchild of the King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The airport that was originally named Sikhuphe was dubbed a “white elephant” and “vanity project” by critics outside the kingdom. The cost of building the airport will never be known, but estimates are that it cost at least E300 million.

The airport officially opened in March 2014 and since then the only passenger-carrying airline to use it has been Swazi Airlink, which is part-owned by the Swazi Government. Despite repeated promises from the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) that there was interest from major international airlines to fly into KM3, none have down so.

In December 2015, the Sunday Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, and described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a review on media freedom in the kingdom, as  a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ reported, that Swazi Airways would fly to 10 countries once it had become fully operational.  The destinations were the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana. 

At the end of March 2017 it became clear that the kingdom could not afford the airline. Swazi Airways decided to drop its lease on the Boeing, but was left with a E6 million debt to the company that leased it.

During a debate on the Swaziland budget senators decided to freeze an allocation of E16 million for the airline, amid accusations of bad management and corruption. Members of the House of Assembly called for a progress report on the airline after three months.

See also

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html

 

AIRLINK FORCED TO USE KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/airlink-forced-to-use-kings-airport.html

 

AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html

KING’S AIRPORT PASSENGERS FLOP

Fewer than 80 passengers a day on average flew out of the KM III International Airport in Swaziland during the three months ending June 2016, latest figures reveal.

If the statistics revealed by the Ministry of Home Affairs are correct this is down from 327 passengers a day that Swaziland Tourist Authority (STA) said departed the airport in January 2015.

The Ministry of Home Affairs in its first quarter performance report for 2016/2017 recorded a total number of 6,717 arrivals between the month of April and June 2016 and recorded a total number of 7,138 departures. These figures were published in the Swazi Observer newspaper on Thursday (15 September 2016).

The King Mswati III airport, named after the kingdom’s absolute ruler, has been mired in controversy since its inception. It was built in a wilderness at Sikhuphe and replaced Matsapha airport which was close to the kingdom’s capital Mbabane and its main commercial city Manzini.

KM III officially opened in March 2014 and since then there have been variously exaggerated claims about the number of people travelling through it and the number of airlines wishing to use it.

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.

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, reported on 12 May 2015, 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 represented 35 percent of the 200,760 claimed in April 2015.

SWACAA had previously said the KM III Airport would need at least 300,000 passengers a year to break-even.

The Times of Swaziland reported on 12 May 2015 that 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.’

No Egyptair flights have taken place.

This claim from Dube was 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 never happened.

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.’ 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’.

AS recently as 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 Air was ready to fly to Dubai, Cape Town, India and Durban.

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 publicly said it wanted to use the airport.

See also

AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/airport-move-will-bankrupt-airlink.html  

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html

$12m SPEND ON ROYAL DECOR AT AIRPORT

As the Swaziland Government goes cap-in-hand to the international community to seek money to stop people starving as a result of drought, news has emerged that US$12 million is to be spent on decorating the Royal Terminal Building at King Mswati III (KMIII) Airport.

KMIII, formerly known as Sikhuphe, is an airport built in the wilderness in Swaziland. It has been widely criticised outside the kingdom where King Mswati rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch as a vanity project for the King.

Despite efforts by the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority and others to disguise the fact, the airport has not attracted the international flights the airport’s supporters promised. The airport officially opened in March 2014 but flights did not start until the following October. The only route served is with OR Tambo in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is a flying time of less than an hour. Fewer than 100 passengers a day on average fly from the airport.

The cost of building the airport is unknown, but estimates widely reported by the media suggest it could have been as much as US$250 - 300 million. It took at least 10 years to build and was opened at least four years behind schedule.

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 sought to serve.

On 21 March 2016 The Star Africa news site reported that more than US$12 million would be spent on ‘the interior decorations’ at the terminal.

It reported, ‘The money for the project termed VVPI Royal Terminal, according to government estimates, will be sourced locally for the procurement of ground handling equipment.’

It added, ‘Solomon Dube, Director of the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) says the airport is a commercial airlines facility and therefore needs to accommodate important guests who require detailed welcoming protocol separately.’

At present 70 percent of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in abject poverty, with incomes less than US$2 a day. Swaziland also has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. 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.

There is no obvious need for the new airport which is being built in the Swazi wilderness 80 kilometres east of the Swazi capital Mbabane. Major airports already exist less than an hour’s flying time away in South Africa with connecting routes to Swaziland.

There has never been a needs analysis undertaken on the airport, and Swaziland’s airport at Matsapha which closed to make way for KMIII only carried about 70,000 passengers a year.

Today, Swaziland is in the grip of a drought crisis. In February 2016, the Swazi Government announced it did not have enough money to give drought relief. It asked for immediate emergency donations amounting to US$16 million. Since then it has been revealed that the Swazi Government intends to spend at least US$9 million on a private jet plane for the King.

See also

U-TURN ON SUCCESS OF KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/u-turn-on-success-of-kings-airport.html

KING PARTIES WHILE CHILDREN DIE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/swazi-king-parties-while-children-die.html

AIRPORT TERMINAL CAN’T HANDLE TRAFFIC

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/airport-terminal-cant-handle-traffic.html

KING’S AIRPORT ‘WILL BE UNUSABLE’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/kings-airport-will-be-unusable.html

BID TO TALK-UP KING’S FAILED AIRPORT

In another attempt to deceive people that Swaziland’s King Mswati III (KM3) International Airport is a success, plans have been announced to build a ‘glittering’ city in the area nearby.
 

The airport, formerly known as Sikhuphe, was opened in March 2014. The construction cost was estimated to be US$250 million, but fewer than 150 passengers a day fly out of the airport, which is built in a wilderness. Only one airline uses the airport for a route to Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa.

Now, Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Director General Solomon Dube has told businesspeople that there are plans to establish a city near the airport. In its report on the matter, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, called it a ‘glittering’ plan.  It reported on Friday (18 September 2015) the plan would include, ‘opportunities such as hotels, hospitals, malls and other permanent structures which can be found in cities will be available’. 

The talking-up of the airport is nothing new. By any objective criteria, the airport has been a failure, but it was the brainchild of King Mswati III himself who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and this failure is ignored within his kingdom.

The airport was built in an attempt to support the King’s claim that his kingdom would be a ‘First World’ nation by 2022. At present seven in ten of the 1.3 population live in abject poverty, with incomes of less than US$2 a day.

The city is not the only recent grandiose plan to be announced in Swaziland. Last month (August 2015), the Swazi Government, which is unelected and handpicked by the King, announced its support for a US$3 billion scheme to build a seaport in the landlocked kingdom connected to the coast of Mozambique by canal.

See also

U-TURN ON SUCCESS OF KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/u-turn-on-success-of-kings-airport.html

SWAZI GOVT STANDS BY FLAWED PORT PLANS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/09/swazi-govt-stands-by-us3bn-port-plan.html

SWAZI KING SNUBS HIS OWN AIRPORT

King Mswati III of Swaziland has so little faith in the new international airport that has his name that he does not use it. 

Instead, he travels in his private jet from Matsapha, the airport that closed to make way for the King Mswati III International Airport (KM111) that was built in a wilderness about 70 km from any major town.

Matsapha remains open from 08.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday to service the King’s needs and also to be available for any emergencies.

The Airport closed to commercial airlines in September 2014, when KM111 became operational.

The information is contained in a report from the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA). 

According to the Observer on Sunday, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati the airport also accommodates the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) Air Wing, but, ‘in most cases now services royal movement as Their Majesties and members of the royal family use it as seen during their departures and arrivals’.

The newspaper also reported, ‘The only planes that frequently use the airport are local ones, which according to information gathered, are those from the Flight Academy based at the airport, the army and those from Simunye, Big-Bend, Ngonini and Usuthu forests. 

Meanwhile, KM111 (formerly known as Sikhuphe) only has three commercial flights a day leaving the airport, taking a maximum of 150 passengers a day to Johannesburg, South Africa.

The airport, considered a white elephant and vanity project for King Mswati who rules as an absolute monarch cost an estimated E2.5 billion (US$250 million) to build.

See also

U-TURN ON SUCCESS OF KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/u-turn-on-success-of-kings-airport.html

KING PARTIES WHILE CHILDREN DIE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/swazi-king-parties-while-children-die.html

KING’S AIRPORT LACKS DISASTER PLAN

News that the SADC Aviation Safety Organisation (SASO), which is responsible for overseeing all safety precautions in the aviation industry, is moving its operations to Swaziland should raise eyebrows because the kingdom itself has no safety plan in operation should a plane crash at the King Mswati III Airport.

This lack of a plan was first disclosed publicly as long ago as November 2010, more than three years before the airport, dubbed King Mswati’s ‘vanity project’, officially opened.

But nothing has been done to ensure passengers have a chance of surviving a crash on take-off or landing.

Musa Hlophe, coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, writing in his regular column in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, on 28 November 2010, asked what would happen if an aircraft with (say) 400 passengers on board crashed at the airport?

He wrote, ‘Assuming that we expanded our country’s ambulance fleet to 200 and each one was able to get to Sikhuphe [the original name of the airport]within one hour, how could our hospitals manage with hundreds of extra patients in one day? The closest hospital will be Good Shepherd at Siteki which is not exactly state of the art and the nearest major hospitals are in Manzini and Mbabane. They are already all on their knees, struggling to cope with our current crises of TB, HIV&AIDS. 

‘Do our hospitals have a plan to cope with maybe 400 foreign people all needing bed spaces urgently? Do we have enough doctors and nurses trained in accident and emergency and most importantly do we have the necessary medicines, equipment and blood for this level of disaster? In a country that cannot even supply its own citizens with the proper drugs to prevent a child dying from rabies because of the bite of one dog - I doubt it. I doubt they could cope with fifty people never mind four hundred.

‘Sikhuphe’s business model to attract major foreign passenger carriers is already flawed because of the competition from four other regional airports within half a day’s drive - Kruger National in Mbombela (Nelspruit), Maputo in Mozambique, King Shaka in Durban and, of course, OR Tambo in Johannesburg. But what really stands out for me, as someone who has worked for businesses for a long time, is what little proper risk analysis has gone on here. Can you imagine an airline that wanted to carry rich western investors and tourists that would risk the lives of hundreds of its passengers? Can you imagine them ignoring the lack of medical systems, equipment, personnel or facilities to cope with even a relatively minor crash that required treatment of only a quarter of their passengers and staff?

‘If we adapt our medical systems to meet this need, will we take resources away from our families who are living with and dying from HIV&AIDS? So I ask a question that does not seem to have been considered in public before. How will the disaster plan for Sikhuphe affect the provision of health care for the rest of us? Will the health budget be diverted from the families of our sick and dying to allow for the imagined needs of strangers who will only stay a few hours in our country? Has Minister Xaba and his team even considered it - have they thought it through? What do they say to the foreign investors?’

The answers to Holphe’s rhetorical questions were, and remain, No. There is no plan in operation, nor is there any indication that anyone connected with the organisation of the airport or the Swazi Government is trying to create one.

Despite this obvious lack of a safety plan, Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Director General Solomon Dube told the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, that SASO was moving its operations from Botswana to Swaziland because, among other reasons, ‘there was continuous surveillance to make sure that safety precautions were always observed in the aviation industry’. 

He also said SASO wanted to ensure ‘that there was severe punishment on any person or organisation that violated the safety standards in the aviation industry’.

On closer inspection it turns out that Swaziland’s civil aviation record was last audited in 2007 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - seven years before the new airport opened. ICAO found that Swaziland was only 16 percent compliant to the ICAO safety standards.

SASO based its decision to move to Swaziland on the results of this audit.

See also

U-TURN ON SUCCESS OF KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/u-turn-on-success-of-kings-airport.html

DISASTER AT SIKHUPHE AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/11/disaster-at-sikhuphe-airport.html

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html