Walvis Bay airport can be the Dakar of southern Africa, says NAC
By Desie Heita

Walvis Bay has the potential to be the Dakar of southern Africa in the aviation industry, says the Namibia Airports Company (NAC). “It can serve as an ideal refuelling location for flights between southern Africa and North America,” said Toska Sem, chief businesses analyst at NAC. She said the increase in flights in the region has given the Walvis Bay airport the potential of being a stopover airport between southern Africa and America as well as Europe. “This potential still exists,” she said. Currently, direct flights from southern Africa to the USA stop over in Dakar, Senegal, for refuelling before they embark on the final leg a cross the ocean. Sem said NAC is also following the developments in the travelling patterns between St Helena Island and southern Africa.

Following the introduction of a route from St Helena to Walvis Bay via Cape Town, with the decommissioned Royal Mail ship, tourism companies have started introducing cruise packages to Namibians, which start at Walvis Bay to St Helena. And it seems NAC wants to exploit this potential. “Given the ideal location of Walvis Bay Airport for flights to that island,” said Sem. Walvis Bay airport is currently being upgraded to accommodate wide-bodied intercontinental aircraft. The runway is being widened and lengthened to 60 m and 3440 m respectively. With such measurements, the runway will be bigger than that of the Hosea Kutako International Airport. The concrete apron is also being relocated and the airport is being fenced off for security reasons. In the meantime the terminal building is being redesigning and the project is to be implemented depending on the availability of funds.

The construction work has already begun on the access road leading to the airport as well as on the roadbed of runway number 27 to commence its extension process. Both runways at the airport will be resurfaced and extended, with runway lights and instrument landing systems put in place. The runways are projected to be full operational by November 2007. The money to upgrade the airport was donated by the Kingdom of Spain, which donated a total of 32,267 million Euros (about N$256.5 million) toward the upgrading of all five Namibian airports, including Hosea Kutako International Airport. “The NAC is confident that Walvis Bay Airport has the potential to be the second international airport in the country.”