PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou Municipality has generally acknowledged that mistakes were made in the previous tender process to find an operator for the Plettenberg Bay Airport.
This emerged when the municipality met with various stakeholders on Friday 16 May to thrash out the way forward for the airport.
The municipality will prepare a new tender, said Municipal Manager Mbulelo Memani. It has been requested that specific timeframes be included in the tender.
"Following the amicable termination of the contract between RSA AERO and Bitou Municipality, the Plettenberg Bay Airport is [now] being managed by the municipality," said Memani.
Key to the return to commercial flights is the refurbishment of the runway, estimated to cost about R45m.
Tour
The interested parties were first given a tour of the airport facilities by airport manager Esmaralda Barnes.
Memani reiterated that the airport was an asset of the public and that the municipality did not have the capacity to develop it. All future proposals will be evaluated.
An inspection of the runway before the stakeholder meeting. Photos: Chris van Gass
Protecting rights
Steve Pattinson, chairperson of the hangar owners' association (HOA) at the airport, described the meeting as "productive".
"The HOA was well represented and we had a lively discussion over the previous tender process and the missteps that were made by both Bitou and Garden Route Aviation.
"We stressed the importance of protecting our rights and that it needed to be built into the tender document.
"We had good discussions around our need for security of tenure as well as fair and market-related leases."
Pattinson said there was agreement that the main objective for the community was the "quick resumption" of scheduled flights and the benefits that would accrue for tourism and economic growth.
CemAir willing to be part of solution
It was agreed to move forward with a master lease with the HOA, which would be in effect until a new operator is in place.
CemAir CEO Miles van der Molen said before the meeting last week that the airline has always been willing to be part of the solution to create an operational airport that complies with the necessary legal requirements.
"Our view is that the best solution will be a three-way participation between the general aviation community, CemAir and the municipality," said Van der Molen.
"We should all stand together to make the airport a valuable piece of infrastructure."
Realistically, said Van der Molen, the airport will never be a commercially profitable operation to attract the level of investment that will be needed to fix the runway (estimated to be about R45m) to a level where larger aircraft can use the airport.
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