A complete transformation in the past 25 years

AIRPORTS COMPANY SOUTH AFRICA has transformed itself, since its inception in 1993, in three major areas; first, in the diversity of its workforce; second, in technical capabilities (both in core and non-core revenue streams); and finally, a complete turnaround of the passenger experience to a level that is globally recognised today.

When Airports Company South Africa was established, there was but a single computer in the entire Jan Smuts Airport (now flagship airport OR Tambo International Airport).

At this point, no corporate head office had yet been established, so network operations were initially managed from Jan Smuts Airport. The machine, which ran MS-DOS, sat on the desk of then airport manager, Jan Spies, and could only run one programme: Multimate (a word processor that far predates Microsoft Office), from a floppy drive.

Things look very different after only 25 years thanks to the digital revolution. Today, nearly every employee uses a computer on a daily basis, wifi is ubiquitous, and passengers check in with digital boarding passes on their smart phones. Even departure boards are now digital, and Air Management Center control rooms look like NASA control rooms. Where shortwave radios facilitated mobile communications in the past, mobile phones now dominate.

The birth of Airports Company South Africa coincided with the new political dispensation, leading up to the first free and fair democratic elections in 1994.

This imbued an impetus for change in the DNA of the new organisation that was formed out of several disparate government departments and entities.

At the time, all the top echelons and specialised positions were occupied by white males, while nearly all black employees were hired in the trolley department. Since then, we have fully transformed our workforce and successfully put forums for conversation and cooperation into place.

Unions were welcomed as stakeholders in 1995, and no strikes have taken place since 1998. The first performance bonuses were paid in 1996. Our workforce today accurately reflects the demographics of our country and the company has consistently been named a Top Employer.

We survived the Y2K bug (and welcomed an SAA Boeing 747 at 00:00 on 1-1-2000 to celebrate successful systems upgrades) and partial privatisation to become one of the most profitable state-owned entities.

We reported an operating profit of R3.1 billion and revenue of R6.9 billion in 2017/18.

The infrastructure that we have built connects South Africa not only to destinations across the globe, but also to space. Our world-class runway

infrastructure has received the world’s largest aircraft (Antonov AN225), the world’s fastest passenger aircraft (Concorde) – and even spaceshuttles can land at Upington Airport.

The company’s understanding of its business has also evolved over time. In the era of the first managing director, Dirk Ackermann, the emphasis was on commercialisation (to maximise rentals, parking, property development; thinking of airports as shopping centres) and digitalisation.

Monhla Hlahla’s tenure was characterised by infrastructure development (developing and following a master plan for large-scale capitalexpenditure), a focus on governance processes (including succession planning), employment equity (with an emphasis on women in leadership) and a lasting legacy of employee egagement (roadshows, events, women in leadership conferences, for example).

Bongani Maseko’s election as chairperson of the ACI bears testament to how South Africa’s airport infrastructure management is respected worldwide.

He led Airports Company South Africa into a new Governance Framework and Operating Model. He applied integrated thinking in order to implement an integrated approach to managing business processes in a business as unique as ours.

He initiated the current Vision 2025 strategy which is positioning Airports Company South Africa as a global operator. It was under his leadership that economic transformation was elevated. Staff also got the benefit of an innovative housing subsidy and the introduction of staff transport for easy and safe commuting.