PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou Council is considering the future of the Plettenberg Bay Airport as it has become a burden that runs at a financial loss.

During a council meeting on Monday 31 October, SMEC, a consultancy firm on infrastructure projects, presented an overview of the airport's future potential and advice on ways forward. 

One of the company's key recommendations was to sell the airport business to an operator, while retaining the airport land on a lease agreement with the buyer, thus maintaining local economic benefits. 

SMEC indicated that Bitou had recently adopted a resolu-tion that the airport is not needed for the delivery of basic municipal services and would no longer be a municipal service.

According to the report, Bitou's air traffic currently has only 1,4% of the market share and 10% of the catchment area of the Garden Route, with only 30 000 passengers per year. 

In contrast, Gqeberha has 1,3-million passengers and 61,4% market share while George has 800 000 passengers and 37,2% market share.

Potential for growth

According to SMEC's report, there is potential for growth, however. It said the Plett Airport should be five times more appealing than George, especially when considering travel time along the Garden Route. 

Not reaching this potential, they said, is due to a range of issues, including ticket prices (which are at a 20% premium) and infrastructure not meeting modern passenger standards.

The report sketched a pessimistic, an optimistic and an expected scenario for the future. A highlight of this was that, with the correct investments, the airport could attract more than 150 000 passengers per year. 

SMEC used Maun in Botswana as a comparison. It only has a quarter of Plett's tourism beds and a population more than three times smaller than Bitou, but attracts 200 000 to 250 000 passengers per year.

Much investment needed

To reach this potential, the report said that substantial investment would be needed to upgrade the airport, including an immediate investment of R15m to R60m and further investments of R7m to R9m over the next decade.

The report also suggests that, should the airport be closed completely, the municipality's net benefit position would be R22,5m with no jobs created. Should no further investment be made but the airport is kept running, Bitou's net benefit would be negative R24,4m with only 85 jobs created over the next 20 years.

The pessimistic view is that, with some investment, the net benefit for Council could be almost R9,5m and 218 jobs created.

However, if the expected scenario is adopted, with more investment and growth, this could hold a net benefit of almost R72m and 780 jobs created in the next two decades. The optimistic scenario increases a net benefit to R228,9m and 2056 jobs by 2042.

Putting in more money

It was recommended that Council sell the airport business as a "going concern", transferring the risk to an operator, and developing a lease agreement that would maximise local benefit.

"I think at the moment we are putting more money into the airport than the revenue we are getting," said Bitou Mayor Dave Swart during the meeting. "I think it is important that we hold on to the property and have an operator that at least operates the airport that doesn't cost the municipality any money, but brings in the economic benefit to the town."

Bitou Municipal Manager Mbulelo Memani said that the issue will be thrashed out at a management level before it is brought to Council for a decision.

Opposition party IPM has however rejected the notion of selling off the Plett Airport. "We fully reject this exploitative proposal of letting go of state assets to place them under private hands," IPM Secretary-General Zwelakhe Mbatsha said.

Mbatsha said the airport is a strategic resource for the town and it is critical that it be kept "in the hands of the municipality and not just to benefit a few".

"We propose that the municipality should investigate formulating a public-private partnership (PPP) where the municipality will still have control of the airport, but the daily management and operations are run by a private entity."

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