2010 countdown to King Shaka International Airport

17 May 2009

THE countdown has begun to the grand launch celebration of KwaZulu-Natal’s landmark R8 billion King Shaka International Airport and Dube TradePort at La Mercy, with less than a year to the scheduled opening on May 1, 2010. That’s the word from Terence Delomoney, the local boss of the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) and general manager of Durban International and National airports.

“With about 350 days to go to the opening, we are on track and steaming ahead to have the airport opened as planned. As construction continues, operational readiness and transfer planning for the state-of-the-art new facility has already begun,” Delomoney said.

“We are now also gearing up for the big opening and it is going to be a huge celebration for KZN and us with all the razzmatazz.”

There would be a planning concept for the official opening, which would be done as a joint effort between Acsa, Dube TradePort and the province.

“We plan to have the airport operationally ready by April 2010 with the relocation taking place overnight at the end of April and us facilitating the first flight at the new airport at the beginning of May 2010,” said Delomoney.

“With 60 percent of the overall project complete… we are very optimistic that (with) the current planning and progress we are experiencing we should meet the deadline.”

If all goes according to plan, the new airport’s first major global event catering for 13 000 international and regional business tourists will be the Indaba tourism trade show, which takes place annually in Durban in early May.

“It will be an honour and privilege to facilitate Indaba 2010 through the new airport at La Mercy,” said Colin Naidoo, communications manager at Durban International Airport.

“It will also be an opportunity for Acsa, the province and city to showcase our new airport, the new stadium and our readiness for the Fifa soccer World Cup.

“As Acsa we have seen Indaba gain in size and certainly in stature over the years. We have seen the numbers of delegates and exhibitors and international visitors grow up to around 12 000 and most of those people come through our airport.

“We are confident that as long as this event remains in Durban, and it should, Acsa will be there to support the city in creating the positive and friendly atmosphere for arriving Indaba delegates.”

On the question of whether the recent short stint of strike protests at the airport construction site had had a negative impact on the development’s completion schedule, Delomoney said the issue had been resolved between the contractor and unions and did not have any major impact on the deadlines of the project.

“The contract has been going extremely well and for that we have to thank our contractor, Ilembe Consortium, who understand the tight deadlines,” he said.

“They have implemented recovery plans to mitigate against some of the setbacks this project has experienced. Ilembe have shown their commitment to the project and we are certain that jointly we should deliver this project.”

Delomoney added: “This is a major aviation infrastructure development and not many new international airports are currently being built around the world from scratch, especially now in the face of the international economic downturn.

“We are very confident at the prospects for this groundbreaking facility and believe the downturn will pass and position this airport to take advantage of future growth.

“This is the first green fields project of its kind in Africa. While it has historically been steeped with challenges, we are very optimistic and want to deliver this multibillion-rand project for the city, province and country.

“The magnitude of the project is sometimes mind-boggling and has unique features that have not been done in this country before.

“The deadlines are certainly very tight, especially with us wanting to open the airport in May 2010 and with just six weeks left to prepare our teams and facility for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

“We maintain that this is also an opportunity for us to be tested in terms of this tight delivery schedule.”

Delomoney said the project had to be looked at in the context of the current bleak economic climate and the amount of around R8 billion that had been invested.

“As much as there is that negative perception, the project is being done and completed and is regarded as one the significant projects in the country,” he said.

“The project commenced 18 months ago and has about 12 months left and that is certainly a record time of 30 months to build a state-of-the-art airport.”

ACSA develops internationally recognised relocation programme for big move to KSIA

The Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) has developed a special operational readiness and transfer programme for the hugely complex planning to relocate the Durban’s airport to the new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) site north of the city.

“The programme is internationally recognised and is going to be conducted by Acsa, and assisted by professional consultants who will co-ordinate and synergise the entire relocation process from Durban to La Mercy,” said Acsa’s Terence Delomoney. “It will also allow us to synchronise the entire construction progress and operational readiness.

“To ensure we have the correct and adequate resources, we have engaged the services of both Acsa and local and international experts for the programme. The local content includes consultant, Aurecon, which will perform a co-ordinating function between the various work stream leaders from Acsa,” he said.

“We also have a team of consultants from Munich-based LGM, who have successfully completed similar programmes at about 10 airports around the world, including Munich.”

“LGM comes highly recommended and well equipped to assist with this critical function, and will |be a resource that we tap for their expertise. Acsa is also considering sending a professional team to meet the team at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London to learn some of the positive aspects of that move. We also want to find out what their shortcomings were so as not have them repeated with the opening of our new airport,” said Delomoney.

Part of the programme was to engage and involve the public, airport staff and other stakeholders.

“There will be an opportunity during the various testing phases, where we will require volunteers to actually role-play a fully operational airport. We will have thousands of ‘passengers’ with that many numbers of ‘bags’ who will be taken through every process that a passenger would.

“This will enable us to test our facilities and processes from the time the ‘passenger’ parks their car, checks in their ‘baggage and then ‘boards’ an aircraft and then to reverse the process for a ‘passenger’ arriving at the airport. That event promises to be an exciting but crucial element for the readiness of the airport,” he said.

“As much as we all are concerned about the critical time lines, we are optimistic that with our work streams of the operational readiness and transfer programme, we will be able to achieve those time frames. But a major component of the success of the plan is the constant engagement with the public and stakeholders,” said Delomoney.

Article by Muzi Mohale (www.travelwires.com)

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