My name is Mark Wilkinson, I’m one of the directors of Cape Winelands Airport. I’m a chartered accountant by background. They call me a rehabilitated accountant, as I spend most of my time looking at aviation matters, and yes, we are developing the new airport for Cape Town, it’s called Cape Winelands Airport.
We’re really latching on to the location, celebrating the winelands location and the history of what we’re doing. It’s a fantastic, exciting new development. We’re hoping to start construction next year, 2026, and to be operational by 2028 with the first phase of operations. It is going to transform the economic landscape of Cape Town and the Western Cape.
It’s got some incredible features as well as large sustainability components to it, but it addresses a lot of capacity constraints and unlocks a lot of latent growth for the demand that is there. We think that this infrastructure project will have the single most impact from a socioeconomic perspective than any other project in Cape at the moment.
So what we found is that by having only one airport in Cape Town, it means that airlines flying to Cape Town International Airport need to carry so much additional reserve fuel, because the next major backup airport is so far away in Johannesburg, which is two hours away.
So by introducing a second airport into the city means these airlines can substantially lower their take-off weight, by reducing how much fuel they need to carry, because Cape Winelands Airport is a much closer backup airport in case of an emergency. And by lowering all this take-off weight, the planes burn less fuel and then emit less carbon.
We’ve estimated that every year, about 60 million kilograms less CO2 would be emitted into Cape Town just by virtue of the airlines having a second airport to help them optimise their fuel planning. And this is a very interesting phenomenon, and it’s because Cape Town as a city is very isolated, and there’s no other major airport nearby. And South Africa is a country at the tip of the continent, at the other end of the world.
With Cape Town as a tourist destination and with so much traffic coming from all over the world, it means these airlines are flying up to 16 hours at a time, carrying all of this reserve fuel unnecessarily. Therefore, a second airport, the Cape Winelands Airport will assist with this.
Image: https://capewinelands.aero/
We’re going through a capital raising process now. We are a private organisation and are privately funded at the moment. These projects need large capital, it is very capital intensive, with lots of earthworks and civils required.
At the moment, we’re raising between R8 and 10 billion, with a split between debt and equity. We hope to receive a positive record of decision regarding our environmental impact assessment and hope to commence the construction next year.
So at the moment we’re engaging with infrastructure funds, banks, impact funds, private equity operators and also wealthy individuals. We’re a completely South African team at the moment, very patriotic, very proud of what we’re doing, and we’re very honoured to be able to be involved in an airport development that doesn’t happen very often. We’ve got a fantastic team, and I think we’re quite fortunate to have the right people in the room.
I think in every sector you need some private sector and public sector involvement. Competition raises service levels; competition brings pricing down. So you never really want a situation where you have a monopoly. The private sector brings a different value proposition. We’re a lot nimbler, a lot more efficient, quicker; we can adapt and adjust a little more effectively.
In South Africa, you’ve got Lanseria Airport, which is non-government, and then you’ve got the Kruger-Mpumalanga Airport up in Nelspruit. Both are very well run and they’re very successful. So we share a lot of similarities with these airports.
And at the same time, having a second airport in Cape Town is good for everybody. It will keep Cape Town International on their toes. And likewise, they will keep us on our toes to make sure we are delivering the best products and service, which is the same for all industries.
Yes, I think with Cape Winelands Airport, there’s more than just the fuel-saving components, we have huge ‘green’ aspirations. We will be self-reliant as well, generating our own power with solar panels, we need about 10 megawatts of power to sustain our demand.
We’re looking to store and treat our own water at the same time, and we’re looking forward to the future. We’ve got a blank canvas, so we’re looking to bring in the latest technology; we’re looking at sustainable aviation fuel when that becomes feasible in South Africa; we’re looking at electrical vertical take-offs and landings; and we’re looking at advanced biometrics within the airport. So there are lots of ways where we’ll be at the forefront of technology and innovation. We’re very excited to be a part of that.
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