Upington the country’s top performing airport over festive season

19 January 2017 - 16:51 By Farren Collins
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Upington further cemented its title as Africa’s best airport handling under 2-million passengers‚ when it grew its passenger arrivals and departures over the festive season by 235%.

The Northern Cape town‚ known for its blistering summer weather‚ was the top performing local airport over the holidays‚ which ran from December 9 to January 14‚ according to statistics released by the department of Home Affairs.

Despite reaching 10 million passengers in a space of a year for the first time‚ Cape Town International came in fourth on the list with a 30% increase.

An increase in passenger movements for seven of the country’s 11 major airports capped a good year locally for the industry‚ which saw nearly 40 million passengers arrive at the country’s airports.

“In 2016‚ our airports received numerous awards as a testament to our dedication to excellence‚ the provision of world-class facilities‚ systems and service by Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and its partners‚” said ACSA spokesman Colin Naidoo.

“Accolades such as the five awards received from the Skytrax World Airport Awards and OR Tambo International Airport being crowned as Africa’s Leading Airport at the World Travel Awards 2016.”

Naidoo said that South Africa’s airports had again been ranked as some of the best in Africa in the annual Airports Council International’s (ACI) Airports Service Quality Awards.

Apart from the accolade won by Upington Airport‚ three other South African airports were named in the top 10 on the continent handling over 2 million passengers per annum. Cape Town International and King Shaka airports tied for second while OR Tambo International came in third.

Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba announced on Wednesday that R25million and 58 immigration officials would be allocated to OR Tambo to increase capacity and improve efficiency. The airport is the largest in the country with a capacity of 28 million passengers per annum.

“OR Tambo as a strategic hub requires additional resources on a permanent basis‚” Gigaba said. “It is for this reason that the department‚ with limited resources‚ plans to increase capacity at this airport.”

The airport was the country’s busiest port over the festive period with nearly 1-million people moving through its terminals.

- TMG Digital/The Times

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