In defence of King Shaka

answer

I strictly recommend not to hold off until you earn big sum of cash to order all you need! You should get the business loans or college loan and feel free

reply this topic

Every body understands that today's life is not very cheap, however people require money for different stuff and not every man gets enough money. Therefore to get good loan and just small business loan would be a correct way out.

Re: ha ha ha

Hi Anonymous,

Do you think things would have been better or worse at a much smaller airport with less capacity? Private jets obstructing the flow of traffic would cause more drama.

Tell me what you think, and where I should throw the egg.

Regards,
Simon.

Ha ha ha

Hundreds of ticket holders miss Fifa Word Cup semi-final … our 'wonderful' new King Shaka Airport has really just made a name for itself, hasn’t it?!

Got egg on your face?

King Shaka - is it worth it?

Bottom line is that there was no respect for the bottom line.

The costs were allowed to spiral out of control on a project that was premature and developed on the basis of a flimsy business case and seemingly without proper consideration or consultation with stakeholders.

The decision to build KSIA was a political one taken 3 years ago and without consultation with the airlines, freight companies, local industry, passengers/public and even without ACSA, which was handed the project as a fait accompli by Government and told to manage it.

Durban's fate as a non-stop long haul destination was sealed when Govt and SAA took the decision to make Johannesburg the hub, with Cape Town as a secondary gateway. Economic and financial realities have only served to further undermine the viability of flights - by SAA or foreign airlines - to Durban. Put simply, airlines cannot the costs associated with adding a short Durban extension to a long haul flight.

KSIA, in all its aesthetic beauty, will be a burden on taxpayers and more so on airlines operating within and to South Africa which are compelled to pay for KSIA even if they don't fly to Durban.

Had it been designed with airline input and to meet their requirements, it would have been a much simpler, utilitarian structure ideal for the needs of low-cost/low-fares airlines. Please explain how this marble and glass edifice with its fancy stores and expensive statues adds value to a passenger's travel experience on a typical 1-2hr domestic flight?

And what about local industry? Durban's manufacturing sector is located at the fulcrum of the city's transport nodes, ie. within spitting distance of the harbour, railways, freeways and what was a perfectly good airport. Twelve years ago I chaired a conference where the viability of an airport at La Mercy was discussed. The question everyone ducked then - and I haven't seen any answers since - was how the City and Province would incentivise and compensate local industry for the added cost of transporting goods and people to a remote airport at La Mercy.

Did anyone consider the folks who worked at DIA and now have the added costs (petrol wear & tear, tolls, etc.) and inconvenience of commuting to KSIA? Most of them cannot afford to move as property north of the city is at a premium. ACSA agreed to run a temporary shuttle service for airport workers, but that's only for the first year of operations. After that, they're on their own.

So returning to the bottom line. Where did that additional R5 billion go and what's to show for it? Someone needs to start digging. I suggest that the fastest route to the answers is to follow the money.

KSIA - Not well thought of for passengers

Firstly, I was all for this wonderful airport, bigger and better and all the hype that surrounded it. Until I had the experience of using it. Twice in the last month. Two arrivals and two departures.
No travellators - why ever not? Are people supposed to be ultra fit to fly these days? Its a helluva long walk to get to wherever (baggage reclaim or the departure gate). Seen old people on that leg of the terminal? I wonder.
And then you not allowed to take a trolley into an elevator. Well we tried the escalator and it was a mission to get the trolley off at the top hence causing injury to my travel companion.
A skew walkway all the way through the car hire area makes you wonder if those guys that designed it tried pushing their wheelies on them. Now how do you push your trolley or pull your baggage on that without causing strain to yourself?
Oh and the food court..could this not have been incorporated within the same entrance..the fod court is inside whilst you have to walk around the oustside for the like of CTFM and M&B..how ridiculous.
So now I ask the question. Will this be fixed or is it something that we will have to just cope with?

Fuel Supply

Two things:

If the new airport has so much additional cargo capacity, why whould passengers carry the bill? Surely the profit made from the increased capacity should carry the cost of that. Nice to have monopoly working for you, ACSA.

Then there is the fuel supply issue. The old DIA was right next to the refineries. KSIA is not. Someone needs to pay to have the fuel transported, by road, to the new airport. That must be what the additional tax is for.

Forward thinking on how to make citizens pay.

King Shaka International Airport

King Shaka?
One can argue for and against the financial implications but calling it King Shaka? The man who killed thousands of his fellow Zulus because of his grief when his mother died in, I think 1827. He killed all pregnant women and their husbands to assuage his grief.
Naming an airport after such a mass murderer is testimony of the people's and the leaders' ignorance.
How low can you go?

New airport

Besides thet fact that little you have written is true, if econnomics was the reality then then Durban international would remain open to service the industrial South.

How on earth you got this idea that the Shaka airport would reduce traffic god only knows? The real truth is that KSA will load the existing infrustructure.

The cost for me as a Southern manufacturer who relied on close proximity transport has almost doubled.

King Shaka airport

If you have read the newspapers the past couple of weeks you would have seen that the government admitted that they made a mistake in building the new airport and especially the location. According to them they thought everyone in Durban owns a car and get to the new airport easily. Even taxis refuse to go to the new airport

KSIA

This is more reason to have DIA operational for cargo & domestice flights at least to cater to the Southern croud of Durban & KZN. IT JUST MAKES SENSE & also give competation for the other airlines. Also creates more employment & vibrancy. Come on guyz bust your heads on this issue.

@ Useless

I am confused as to why your issues with banking institutions and M&B and due to poor planning on the part of KSIA. Poor planning on your side more likely - how does the design and running of the aiport get help responsible for you not having cash on you or not doing enough forward planning in terms of your forex?

dont get me started

let's talk in about 10 years when the price of oil is $ 1000 / barrel and air traffic dwindles under the peak oil crisis.

Airports are important - yes - but excessive amounts of money (such as R7billion which could have given Durban a state-of-the-art public transport system like the one being rolled out in CPT and JHB) should be directed towards more 'sustainable' projects.

The reality is that Durbans current airport would have done fine as its current capacity will not be reached (buisness as usual models cant apply to what is coming our way).

The reality is that Durban is the big clearing house for the economic corridor to JHB. If air cargo is going to arrive, it will arrive to JHB's airport - not Durban - that is inefficienct operations. Durban exists because of JHB, it is the busiest harbour because of JHB (this is about to end because Richards Bay is fast taking over the industrial port role, as well as Saldanah which is also becoming a highly competitive gas and steel export IDZ).

I still have yet to hear a rational (not emotive) arguement for why King Shaka was a good idea. It is kind of like building a new impressive petrol station just when petrol has run out.

The reality is that Durban just flushed R7billion (like Cape Town has just done at CTIA, and JHB at ORTIA) on something that is just going to be a white elephant.

So, yes, government is terrible at forward planning and visionary planning. No amount of fluff will disguise a bad decision.

Read some Peak Oil literature - it paints a very different picture from what our Standard 6 average education government is selling to you.

Easy for you to say, yes we

Easy for you to say, yes we as taxpayers will have to pay for that stupid desighned airport. If you leave DIA, all the food courts are on the outside of the main building. DIA cannot be compared to other airports around the country. I regurlary travel to cape town and joburg, DIA don't come close to these airports. When my family see me off at cape town airport, we can still have a meal and kids can watch planes land and leave the runway. There are still some stuff that needs to be fixed, but all other airports is by far better than DIA. The desighners should go back to the drawing board, it is not people friendly.

Utter Rubbish

I am so disappointed at this airport, it's not funny. I've been there twice, and both times were just pure chaos.

First time was about 3 weeks ago, taking my sister for her flight to OR Tambo. She checked in, I bought breakfast for her at Mugg & Bean and paid cash. BIG mistake!! She left, I realised I didn't have enough money to pay for parking so I searched around for an FNB ATM-NOTHING!!! So I used the Absa ATM- both of them didnt have funds. So I went to the Standard Bank ATM and to my luck, the ATM swallowed my card!! The STD Bank people were not much help.

Since I have an Absa Bank account which I hardly use, but keep open (for whatever reason), I needed an internet cafe to transfer money from my FNB account to my Absa account and use the Express Clearing option to make the funds available immediately, but gues what, no internet cafe at KSIA. So back to the car I go to pick my laptop, hopefully to pick up a wifi signal. Cudnt pick that up too (is THERE wifi at KSIA??).

Second time was this past Tues (1 June). My flight to Dubai. GEt there on time, check in, only thing left to do is buy forex. Ask at Info where the Bereau de Change is and they show me. Was utterly shocked to realise that Bidvest Bank is the only forex shop at an INTERNATIONAL airport!! WTF?? These fools were charging me R8.06 to buy 1 US$!! Whose idea was it to create a monopoly like that? At OR you have like 4 of these places & u compare rates. But wait for it, I cudnt do the transaction cuz the powers that be at Bidvest didn't think that some people would buy forex using their Point of Sale (POS) limit on their debit cards, so they treated my transaction as though I was w/drawing the money from an ATM. I needed to change R15k worth of forex- my daily limit is R2,000, which I'd used during the day! (Brian Joffe are u listening? You have idiots working at your KSIA agency?)

Because there is no internet cafe, we drove to Gateway and i did my transaction there. (that's after I'd asked the fools at Bidvest if they could allow me to use their internet facility to increase my daily limit on my internet banking profile, so THEY could do a sale. "No bro, you can do that via the ATM", one employee said. No you fool you can't.)

Oh, for the record, the author is a black man, before people start thinking it's only the white folks who are complaining. This airport has Mike Sutcliffe, Loggie Naidoo and former Premier Sbu Ndebele written all over it- useless and corrupt to the core. One more thing- were Black people not invited to the "jobs fair" that apparently was reserved only for Indians? KSIA has an Indian staff compliment as though one is in Mumbai! Is the Durban branch of Emirates Airlines owned by the Curry Mafia or what because from the person who sold me the ticket to the person who checked me in, it was just Indians. I don't mean to be racist, but something's wrong there...

Think outside the square

What I don't understand from most people below is that they simply can't think ahead. Imagine an airport as an alternative for International airlines. Joburg airport even with the major work is currently operating to capacity. The aim is to have an airport capable of expanding in the future in order to cope the increasing demand every year. It is important for any major city to be able to be an international gateway in order to make it accessible.

In 10 years time you will have a different situation. More International airlines will fly directly into Durban where passengers can either connect on to other cities or even spend some of their holiday or business time in Durban. A better gateway in Durban create more business growth as it will be more accessible for overseas companies to have large offices in Durban.

This airport is very necessary for the future development and growth of Durban

Mouthpiece of who?

Is this journalist a mouthpiece for Sutcliffe or what?

KSIA - AGAIN

I did not read the older posts before posting my last comment - but am glad to see some sensible people agree with me on the travellators and the parking prices - I can believe someone paid R600 for 4 days, as it cost me R480 for 3 days - its the undercover that is more expensive. long term is also more expensive than the old airport - at the old airport i would park on tuesday morning and on thursday pay R140 - now the same parking costs me R280. I have never noticed a major shortage of seating - granted it is not a lot, but then again, I am usually only just in time to board so don't have to stress about that!

For the record, I live in Umhlanga and have yet to be disturbed by the sound of a plane flying overhead.

KSIA

I have no objections to the new airport, and recognise the need for such a facility for Durban (plus its only 12 kms from home as opposed to 32 to the old one. What I do object to is the poor planning/design that has been used - in a R7 Billion operation. I travel on a weekly basis and each time I pass through there, I cannot help but wonder why why why they did not incorporate travellators in the area from the skybridges through to the baggage retrieval areas? It is a lonnnnng walk after a long and tiring day - or in the case of overseas travellers, after a long and tiring flight, and having to lug handbaggage on tired legs and shoulders is something i could do with out. I pity people who travel with small children who will be tired and not want to walk themselves. I carry a laptop, handbag and often an overnight bag too - it really is too much. The other issue I have is the pathway to get from the terminal to the shaded parking area - it's like a rollercoaster, and again, when you are tired, pushing suitcases/trolleys etc to your car (I miss the good old days of the shuttle that dropped me at my car) is a big fat pain in the butt. And as for the price of parking.....Running late for my flight the other morning I parked in the parkade. Car was there from Tuesday morning until Thursday evening......R480 - which I think is a total rip-off - for that price I would expect my car to have been valet treated in my absence.

Please also do something about the inadequate street signs on departure - our toursits are going to be confused!

We are all experts on airport design...

@Waist will we starve (I'm sure you meant waste) - By your logic the fisherman should rather not buy a fishing pole but use the money to buy food so they can eat today and starve tomorrow? Typical locust mentality.

To the people saying it's a waste - Quite a number of international carriers are going to start operations again in Durban due to the new airport. This means you won't have to fly to Johannesburg (and have your bags stolen) anymore to catch an overseas flight.

As for the seating at the boarding gates - Knowing there aren't seats, why go there an hour before if you know this? The elderly or sick/disabled should ask for wheelchair assistance when they know long distances are involved. Viola seating sorted.

We should judge an airport on how long it takes you to get through all the processes. This includes things like signage and walking distances etc. I had to laugh at the comment about the absence of travelators! Are you serious?

In defence of King Shaka

What a load of hogwash! If this was so finacially feasable as claimed why was it not built then years ago. The land was there. It would have cost a lot less to build in 1994 than in 2009! What about the reliance on fuel being trucked in? What does that cost? So one airline flies to Durban direct. And they have the A380. Let me know the day they use one to fly to Durban with. Just because Emirates operate the A380 does not mean they intend using them to Durban. Is airfreight not a hell of a lot more expensive than ship or container? And what about all the modifications done at DNI a few months ago? And why did the Government then themsleves say it was maybe a mistake to build the new airport? Now a 3 million Rand statue is not good enough either as it makes Shaka look like a herder of cattle! My goodness, can anyone tell us please how did the man look?

Create positive article. I

Create positive article. I am sure over time some of the short comings mentioned in some of the posts, like No seating at the boarding gates or No travelators on the long corridors will be corrected.

For the folks that keep pointing out the cost vs. upgrading the existing airport miss some of the key point you make about runway length and floor & retail space.

I think this is a fantastic investment not only in KZN or Dbn but also SA (and no I am not a Durbanite but a Blue Bull -had to get that in :-) living in Jozi) and I believe the costs can and will be recouped as the cargo and passenger numbers increase.

It is also a new landmark to show international visitor of our abilities to be an 3rd world country competing in the the first world.

Ciao and best of luck

Who's ingeniously ludicrous

Who's ingeniously ludicrous idea was this. But what's even better is that "we" honor our achievements with the memory of bloodshed, hence the name

Who paid U to write such utter drivel?

This has obviously come through an ACSA trash collector...Marketing pimps are everywhere..

Waist will we starve

My question to everyone. Why are we spending so much money on cr ap? When half our nation is dying of starvation and hiv related aids or outher related illnesses. Surely we can put this money to better use. I for one dont care about the airports, I never use them. Why not just revamp the ones we have at a 10th of the price and then put some food in the mouths of starving babes. Again, the government fails to look after its people. Who cares that its been planned for a long time, it makes no big difference in the long run.

This is nonsense

Is this a re-hashed press release or objective journalism? Because there are so many errors it's embarrassing. Sure, the increase on a R1000 ticket may only be 7%, but that doesn't change the fact that airport taxes will go up by 50%.

And yes, there is an alternative cargo route. It's called a railway. Something else that the state has let go to rack and ruin. 40km is to hell and gone and it would have been cheaper to extend the DIA runway. The government is going to destroy the old airport because the Minister of transport is not going to allow competition with the new one. (His own words.) Please give us decent journalism instead of being a government mouthpiece.

King Shaka Airport

You said it like it is Simon - I agree!!!
Instead of it taking me 45 mins to the old airport it will now take 20. I am extremely happy that the airport has moved. My children fly in and out of Durban airport and I am constantly toing and froing along the N2.
Good for the ANC. In my eyes they have finally done something that I agree with.

Airport Joke

Having read the posts before, i must agree, the airport is a joke. there is no seating in the departures lounge, some of the elderly were made to sit on the floor as they were unable to stand for the two hours my return flight was delayed for, nowhere for anyone to sit. This is a disgrace to ACSA through and through, who thought of that, 90% of people check in and go through the final security scanner an hour or so before the flight, what do you do, sit on the floor in KSIA.

As for the toll gate, thats the next joke, all the roads in this place are a joke. I travel extensively throughout SA, the good roads I don't mind paying toll for, the bad ones I have to pay for makes me angry. As for alternative routes, wasnt it law to offer an alternative route to a toll? well to go to Zimbabwe as many do the alternative is another 150km longer as you have to go through botswana, and the road are non-existant.

If our government had the

If our government had the foresight to build the new King Shaka Airport for truly altruistic reasons (and not for kickbacks and corruption), then it really is a pity that they also didn't have the foresight to widen the N2 north interchange at Spagetti Junction, as well as the section of N2 between Durban and the airport at the same time. All this supposed ‘development’ is going to need a free-flowing road system to power it. What should have been a round trip journey of approximately 2hrs and 20mins to the airport from PMB, took a good 3 and a half hours due to traffic congestion. It’s one thing to accept the inconvenience of the airport being further away, but that the journey should also take so much longer due to inadequate road links is another thing altogether. Foresight and planning I think not!

The airport was needed

I must agree, the airport was a necessary expense required for the predicted growth in tourism. It jsut really cracks me up that I was on one of the first planes to land at KSIA, and nothing worked. It took 45min to get off the plane as the airbridges did not work. We could not pay to get out the car park as the parking pay points did not work, took us just over an hour for them to realise this when there was a queue of cars lined up trying to get out an no-one had paid. This is a disaster of an opening and made no help towards getting people on the side of the airport. Local flights only to KSIA to start with, thanks I missed my international connecting flight due to your piss poor planning, my hour between flights was not enough for your bus trip to get me there intime, at whose cost, mine. ACSA need to think better about these thing before they try open such airports

DIA

So what was the point of building the new parking garage at the DIA.

@noise nonsense & @rip off

HM The Queen is not in residence at Windsor all the time. The departure routes from Heathrow avoid Windsor castle and it is illegal to fly directly overhead the castle at all times.

the lack of seating at departure gates is a disgrace given the costs of the new tolls 7 airport taxes and the lack of a viewing deck is a most unfortunate and very short-sighted opportunity to educate and inspire children to take up carrees in aviation, science and technology.

road toll king shaka

I don't think your article is quite correct. You have to pay a toll upon leaving the airport of four rands. There is no alternative route either going north or south that avoids a toll of some sort. This is in spite of legislation, which i presume has not been rescinded but rather conveniently ignored, requiring the roads-powers-that-be to provide an alternative route.

King Shaka Rip Off

The airport looks good but does not cater for the traveller.
1. No seating at the boarding gates
2. Most expensive parking in SA.
3. No travelators on the long corridors.
4. Try walking to your car parked in the shaded parking pushig a heavy trolley. Walk ways are steep and long.
5. No parking shuttle
6. No viewing deck.

Lets have some competition to ACSA. BA buy the old DIA airport!!

Corruption

It was unfortunate that most of the very expense goods and equipment was bought in 2008 ( I supplied products from Europe) with the rand trading at 13 to the euro. It was also very upsetting how much corruption took place as some products were actually budgeted 5 times higher than its actual value. I can assure you our company made a lot less money than some small time politicians in Natal. What can you do? R 7 billion spent and the airport will never recover even a fraction of that investment. The money could have been used, as someone mentioned, to upgrade DIA and Lanseria for example. There would probably be 4 billion left ( corruption fees included) for many other projects.

Noise nonsense!

The Queen lives about 10km from Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. If she can live with the noise so can the people of Umhlanga!

Agreed Fine Airport Indeed

Not too sure where people are getting these parking rates from. I staring at my parking ticket from last week for 5 days, Monday morning to Friday Evening, cost me R375 ie R75 per day in the long term parking area, which is also probably a quicker walk than the previous airport.
Cool looking airport though. One suggestion is to improve the parking signage and signs in general.

New "Dur"ban Airport

But what about the alternative of upgrading the old airport; and what about building a new secondary/alternative airport for cargos only...Kinf Shaka is going to be a big white elephant shining all over Africa!

Great airport

The airport is great a vast improvement on the old except a 4 day car park will cost you R600.00 and the people living in the exclusive suburbs north of Umhlanga will now have to deal with all those cargo aircraft taking off at full throttle in the middle of the night.