Sunday, May 02, 2010

New King Shaka Airport opens

Wow, what an exciting weekend for Durban!! We made international aviation history as the only airport to have completed re-located to a brand new airport 35kms north of the city. Both airports were up and running simultaneously, with staff at both ends having to oversee the big switchover. 

We were there on Friday 30th April to see the last plane land at the Durban International Airport - open since 1955 and closed for the last time at 10pm.

Then this morning, Sat 1 May heralded the opening of the brand new 3x larger King Shaka International airport designed to cater for the huge A380 Airbus and the droves of international tourists who are discovering the gem of Durban on the sunny east coast of South Africa.

In the photos from top, how the morning paper covered the planeload of dignitaries who were first to land at the new airport. then the pics of the awesome new airport I took today, and in the smaller pics Dave (that's me) hamming it up at the deserted check-in counters and baggage belt at the closing airport after the last flight had departed on Friday night.

2 comments:

Benjamin said...

MMmmm - the droves of International tourist who will land at King Shaka will find that tehy have to wealk to town... I know the Indaba is on and let be realistic - it si drawing a huge crowd, probably in the region of 10 000 - well by 12 noon on 6 May - every single car rental company had rented its cars - even the ones as far as Richards Bay and Pietermaritzburg... can someone please remind him the new stadium takes 60 000 ppl... and alot of them will fly in...

Dave said...

Yes it is going to be hectic. We are anticipating possible transport problems and if needed will be fetching all of our own guests from the Airport ourselves. We are sure a number of shuttle busses will also be laid on by FIFA.