East London Airport is flying high, thanks in part to cheap flights to its airport

The East London Airport is in the process of implementing a series of upgrades as usage patterns of the airport shift, thanks in part to the increasing number of cheap flights to East London.

In anticipation of usage, a new rainwater harvest system has already been installed in order to support the airport’s fire-fighting systems.

Upcoming projects reported to be slated to break ground in 2019 include:

• A R72m expansion of the departure lounge;
• A R215m multistory parking lot;
• A R21m solar plant; and
• A R27m eastwards extension of the existing apron to make space for additional next-generation Code C aircraft.

The updates are designed in large part for public ease, convenience, safety, and also as a way to make both Buffalo City Metro and the Eastern Cape more attractive destinations for both work and recreation. For example, the new parkade, which will have at least 800 bays (some replacing existing bays, but over half will represent increased parking capacity), will also connect to new access roads, improving traffic flow and easing parking pressure.

The expansion and upgrades are necessary in order to accommodate recent growth and usage. Both incoming and outgoing passengers have increased by 3%, in part due to the affordability of cheap flights to East London.

The increase in airport traffic is even more impressive, given the loss of SA Express flights, which had previously accounted for 9% of the facility’s flights. In fact, it is the increased service by other airlines as they moved to pick up the business previously handled by SA Express, that brought in new passengers.

Multiple airlines have been able to make good use of larger aircraft, allowing for increased traffic. Airlink particularly has added routes to Cape Town and Durban, alongside routes already offered by Kulula and FlySafair. SAA has also increased its service to East London and brought back the popular non-stop night flight to Johannesburg.

With more carriers providing cheap flights to East London, the assumption may be that SAA would be losing market share at this airport, but this has not been the case.  Instead, the people taking advantage of the new schedules are largely people who seldom flew before. The result is increased business for the airport, not less.

According to a recent study, the East London Airport generated R222m in the financial year of 2017-18, R47m of that in the salaries paid to 264 permanent employees.