Johannesburg International Airport is preparing for increasing numbers of tourists, and the arrival of the giant Airbus A380, by building new facilities.

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OHANNESBURG International Airport is to spend R3.4-billion upgrading security and facilities ahead of the 2010 Football World Cup - and another R8-billion by 2012 on building a new terminal to meet the demand of fast-growing passenger numbers.

Changes on the cards for Johannesburg International Airport

The upgrades will also ready the airport for handling the giant Airbus A380 and for accommodating the Gautrain rapid rail link between the airport, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The R3.4-billion represent's the lion's share of Airports Company South Africa's (Acsa's) R5.2-billion infrastructure expansion programme for its three main airports - Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban International - and seven smaller airports ahead of 2010.

The new R8-billion terminal, according to Business Day, will be built in the open space between two runways at the airport, and will have its own domestic and international check-in facilities to help ease traffic flow and cut processing time at the current main terminal.

Johannesburg International, Africa's biggest and busiest airport, handled 16.1-million passengers in the year to 31 March, an 11 percent increase on the year before, and is expected to handle in the region of 21-million passengers a year by 2010.

Acsa said in a statement that a number of key projects at the three airports were already in full swing.

New terminal

Planned projects include a new R1.8-billion central terminal building at Johannesburg International, linking the international and domestic terminals, to enable central processing - with easy access to the Gautrain - for both domestic and international passengers.

A further R218-million will be spent on nine new aircraft stands with air-bridge links directly to the new terminal, four of which will be able to accommodate the double-decker A380.

A R512-million "international pier" development will allow for a substantial increase in the number of passengers boarding and disembarking through air bridges, provide additional passenger holding space and offer an expanded duty-free mall for international passengers.

Some R81-million will also be spent on expanding the international departures concourse to "relieve the congestion currently being experienced at the international check-in area," Acsa said.

And a second multi-storey parkade, the first phase of which is scheduled to open in November 2007, will add 5 000 more parking bays to the airport's current 6 900 bays.

Joburg International general manager Chris Hlekane told Business Day that security at the airport had already been beefed with the construction of a 25km perimeter wall and strengthened access control at the gates at total cost of R52.5-million.

Source: The official South African portal: southafrica.info