Chapter 11 - Sedibeng District Municipality

there are a further 50 hectares of developable land adjacent to the airport w hich is
zoned for warehousing type uses. In the light of this and its proximity to City Deep
freight terminal, the airport sees itself as becoming a regional freight and passenger
hub. Traffic expansion is expected w ith the land development, and the major success
of these plans w ill depend largely on being able to get a SADC Regional Operating
licence w ith a reintroduction of customs and immigration facilities.
One problem that the airport management complains about is the restricted road
access. This is relative and despite its proximity to the regional freew ay netw ork,
access from the netw ork is indirect. There is direct access from the north via the N3
to the airport but the return link is not available and has to be made by w ay of the N17
or central Germiston. Also, to take advantage of its proximity to City Deep, it w ould
need improved road access across the N3. There is good freew ay connection from
close to RandAirport to ORTIA and this w ould be improved further w ith the
construction of the PWV13 and PWV14. Major highw ays are located to the south and
west.
(c)
LanseriaInternationalAirport, West Rand
Lanseria International Airport is a privately ow ned airport and is developing at a very
fast rate and has attracted low -cost scheduled traffic aw ay from ORTIA because of
the high costs of operating from there and the lack of guaranteed parking, take-off
and landing slots. With a main runw ay nearly 3000 metres in length, it can
accommodate mid-size jet aircraft. Traffic is growing at the airfield at a high rate.
With this, pressure on the small operators to also move elsew here w ill become an
issue.Lanseria has the advantage of being the only airfield besides ORTIA to have
customs and immigration facilities. Lanseria has poor road access via the R512,
despite its proximity to the N14/R28 Pretoria/Krugersdorp Freew ay. How ever, the
R512 link to the N14/R28 is currently being upgraded by Gautrans. The airport itself
is not near any large industrial areas, except Kya Sands in Randburg.
(d)
GrandCentralAirport, Midrand
GrandCentralAirport revealed that the airport has no expansion plans. It recently lost
its customs and immigration facilities and consequently lost a great deal of traffic,
including all of its cross border regional traffic, and related revenue as a result – all of
the lost traffic migrated to Lanseria. Grand Central has tw o major disadvantages for
airport operations as follow s:
• Firstly, the runw ay is 1850 metres long by 30 metres w ide cannot be
extended. This is not a problem for local general aviation activities but could
become so for international operations.
• Secondly, road access at peak hours is constrained because of congestion on
the primary and secondary highw ays in its vicinity.
The Gautrain rail link is how ever constructing the Midrand Station adjacent to the
property, and large-scale property development of the area by the private sector has
been tabled w ith the City of Johannesburg. This w ill include major upgrades to the
local road netw ork, and improved access to the N1 freew ay.
With this in mind, it seems unlikely that GrandCentralAirport w ill become a competitor
for overflow traffic from ORTIA and Lanseria. Regular complaints are received from
neighbouring residential areas about noise but these are usually proven to be w ithin
the limits of agreed operational procedures and noise standards.
SDM DITP, 2008 to 2013 152 31 Aug 2010