Thinking ahead

ACSA’S extension plans for Cape Town International Airport seem like another quick-fix solution, reeking of shortsighted forward planning.

For quite some time there has been talk of an alternative and/or complementary airport being planned for the West Coast, in the vicinity of Atlantis. The West Coast/ Blaauwberg-Atlantis corridor airport is actually included in Cape Town’s future growth planning blueprints. The advantages of a West Coast airport are legion:

1. Proper planning from scratch in order to accommodate new-generation passenger jets and the increase in flights (as done with King Shaka in Durban, where proper planning started more than 30 years ago).

2. Properly planned and secure traffic access and parking.

3. Ample space for satellite economic activities, ie, hotels, conference and expo facilities, aeronautical-related industries. The development of airport “cities” and business hubs is the current international trend.

4. Supplying jobs for the beleaguered Atlantis community.

5. A gigantic boost for the Western Cape building industry.

Cape Town is one of the world’s foremost tourist destinations and local government needs to wake up to this fact and become more proactive.

It came to my knowledge that overseas investors have for some time been keen to invest heavily in a new airport for the Western Cape, but meetings with procrastinating and politically-minded officials ended in a cul de sac. Come on, Acsa and local government, get your act together. We need proactive and far-sighted decision- makers in these troubled economic times.