Global Aviator April 2018 / Vol. 10 / No. 4 23
Airports are catalysts for
socio-economic growth
and Cape Town
International Airport
has organically been
growing into an
Aerotropolis,
a concept which sees an
airport at the core
of modern
urban activity.
During the early formative yearsof aviation, aerodromes were merely
rudimentary open fields from where
aircraft commenced and ended flights.
Dependent on weather conditions,
all that was required for take off
and landing was a level strip of
land relatively free of obstructions.
En route navigation was basic VFR
following roads and railway lines.
Needless to say, following the end of
the flying boats era that connected
Europe with Southern Africa, there
was a growing awareness of the
benefits of travel by air. In the wake
of the Second World War, regulations
governing aviation and the structures
of aerodromes followed and TheWingfield Aerodrome, a post World
War II military aerodrome situated
close to the city centre became
Cape Town’s municipal airport,
Within a decade after the end of
the Second World War, the Jet age was
dawning and airlines were transitioning
into bigger more sophisticated aircraft.
In 1954 Cape Town’s state owned
international airport named after D.F.
Malan, the sitting Prime Minister at that
time, commenced operating to replace
the obsolete Wingfield Aerodrome.
Apart from servicing South African
Airways' domestic services, and other
schedule and non-schedule carriers, two
international long haul flights operatedThe integrated domestic terminal accounts for
the big 5 of South Africa’s domestic carriers
representing 75% of all passengers at CTIA