Joburg airport: the best in Africa
Thomas Thale
3 November 2003
It is official. Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) is the best airport in Africa, and continues to improve.
The airport in October won Skytrax Best Airport in Africa award for the second consecutive year. The survey, conducted among the travelling public from 80 countries, is commissioned and carried out by UK airline research company Skytrax.
Just what makes the airport stand out is easy to see. As you approach the airport, you are struck by the ease with which traffic flows into and out of the massive complex. Indeed, driving to, and finding your way around, the airport has become a breeze since the completion of an R850-million development project, which had been three years in the making.
More capacity, better efficiency
Since the opening early this year of a new, state-of-the-art domestic terminal at JIA, the biggest and busiest airport in Africa, the airport has become busier, but more
efficient. The R450-million facility has dramatically boosted the capacity of the airport.
General Manager of JIA, Bongani Maseko, says the new terminal has increased the airport's capacity by more than 10-million passengers a year. JIA has, until now, handled 12-million travellers a year.
A further R400-million was spent upgrading adjacent aprons and the roads infrastructure in the vicinity of the airport. According to Maseko, the entire road network feeding the new terminal had to be adequately accommodated.
Most importantly, the road changes had to take place while the airport remained operational, hence the need for re-routing of traffic on more than one occasion during the three-year construction period.
Construction of the terminal, the biggest in Africa and the largest project ever undertaken by the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), started in 2000. Acsa is a majority state-owned company that owns and operates South Africa's nine principal
airports.
It was partially privatised in 1998 when Italian airports management firm, Aeroporti di Roma, acquired a 20 percent stake. The new terminal was therefore developed in conjunction with Aeroporti di Roma.
The new terminal covers 80 000mē of floor space. An attractive feature of the terminal is an inclined travelator (moving pavement), the first on the continent, which functions like a massive elevator. The travelator connects the arrivals hall on the ground level, to the retail section on the middle level and the departures hall on the top floor. The middle level serves as the main entrance to the building and provides a public walkway that links the multi-storey parkade to the terminal.
The walkway leads directly to the retail area that comprises various outlets, including shops, restaurants, coffee shops and pubs as well as seating areas with a view down on to the arrivals hall below.
Infrastructural developments include a new domestic passenger
walkway, which provides additional air bridge capacity, enabling more passengers to connect directly to their aircraft.
Easy passenger movement
Plane lovers eager to catch a glimpse of aircraft landing and taking off, can now watch the runway activities from the aircraft viewing deck, situated in the departures hall.
The design of the building encourages a natural movement of passengers without relying exclusively on signage. "The walkways have been carefully designed with directional ramps and sculptured walls to help provide a general sense of direction," Maseko says.
The terminal also boasts a conference centre and a business support facility that will provide logistical support for conferences. There are also pick-up and drop-off facilities directly outside the terminal to ensure quick access for departing and arriving passengers.
The upgrade includes the construction of an additional 1 180 parking bays, increasing the
airport's parking bays in the multi storey parkade to 5 500. Indigenous wood inlays and local granite flooring, giving the building a homegrown African feel, soften the glass and steel finishes. While it draws its design influences from around the world, the terminal has a distinct African flavour, says Maseko.
The new terminal was designed to be user-friendly and has facilities to cater for the needs of the disabled. Wheelchairs have been catered for with the placement of lifts, for ease of access, in the centre of the terminal.
Following the renovations, the international terminal has been renamed Terminal A and the domestic terminal is now called Terminal B. In future, says Maseko, passengers arriving or departing on international flights could be accommodated through Terminal B, removing some of the pressure on the existing international terminal.
Longer-term plans include the transformation of the old domestic terminal into a transfer facility to allow
passengers to move seamlessly, and within one structure, between Terminal A and Terminal B.
Easier airport access
The development has dramatically simplified access to the airport precinct as all drop-off for international and domestic departures happens on the upper roadway, while all pick-ups of international and domestic arriving passengers happens on the lower roadway. The parkade can now also be accessed from both the lower and upper roadways as well as through the main parkade entrance.
The additional parking facilities ensure passengers can connect directly from the parkade, across the pedestrian bridge, into the terminal. Airport users are also presented with a host of retail options previously not available in the old terminal.
The Airport Medical Clinic has undergone a major overhaul, now offering a wide variety of services previously not available to travellers.
The public can, through the clinic, see a
physiotherapist, consult a doctor, have their eyes tested, visit the dentist and even go for botox injections, for those worried about the lines around their eyes.
For business travellers, a wireless connectivity service has been installed and is available throughout the shopping area. Airport Online offers wired and wireless Internet access to airport users. Those wishing to access the Internet or send an e-mail prior to their departure are now offered a variety of options. Users can visit the Airport Online office in the terminal and make use of one of the PCs available. Payment is mainly through credit card, but cash options are also on offer.
Users can also plug their own laptops into the connections supplied and work from the facility. The wireless option is available throughout the retail section. This allows laptop users, making use of wireless cards, to get online anywhere in that area. This ensures busy travellers can enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee while
finishing an urgent report or even catching up on their e-mails.
Visually, huge areas of open space and a triple volume centre area characterise the new facility. The entire western section of the new terminal is made of glass, allowing floods of natural light into the area. The departures hall is equipped with skylights for the same purpose.
Delivering his budget speech before Parliament in June, Minister of Public Enterprises and Acting Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe, revealed that Acsa has projected a budget of R2,7-billion in capital expenditure programmes "for improvements in terminal capacity, runways and taxiways, roads and parking, safety, security and bulk infrastructure for the period 2002-2007, with the greater portion of this expenditure going into Cape Town and Johannesburg international airports".
The upgrade of JIA is part of a larger Acsa initiative to improve the capacity of airports in the country to cope with the increased number of
travellers, both domestic and international. Both the Cape Town International Airport and the Durban International Airport have undergone major refurbishments over the past year. Port Elizabeth International Airport has also been improved and reconfigured, giving the airport a 33 percent improvement in capacity.
According to Radebe, Acsa's estimated capital expenditure for the current financial year is in the order of R600-million. "Investment in air navigation infrastructure is essential to ensure that South Africa can cope with growing traffic volumes and new technology, while maintaining the required aviation safety standards."
This is not the first time that JIA has been upgraded. Since it was built in 1952, the airport has undergone several renovations. "The old domestic facilities have been extended on a number of occasions in the airport's history," explains Maseko.
"However, extensions no longer offered a long-term solution to passenger growth. For this
reason, Acsa took the decision to invest in excess of R850-million in the Southern Precinct Development." Increasing demand for travel into South Africa resulted in the need to develop the airport's infrastructure to not only accommodate present needs but also predicted growth, says Maseko.
Radebe expresses confidence that the renovations of JIA will lead to an increase in the number of air travellers using the airport. "This will also translate into more flights between the airport and other cities in the country," says Radebe. "The impact of the project and user expenditure will be felt in the district's economy for a long time."
The air traffic systems at the airport that are managed by Air Traffic Navigation Services are soon to be upgraded. Radebe says R228-million will be spent on "upgrading aging radar display and processing systems at Johannesburg International Airport that will expand the control centres nationwide and incorporate 'automatic sequencing' of
traffic into Johannesburg and Cape Town, ensuring correct separation and a consistent flow of arrivals, which will enhance efficiency and reduce costs for airlines".
For the public though, the new terminal at JIA offers a world-class airport experience and most importantly, the knowledge that their patience during three years of construction has been worth the wait.
Source: City of Johannesburg web site
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