There's potentially good news for high-flying Makana residents as the municipality is considering developing the Grahamstown Aerodrome into a commercial airport.
There's potentially good news for high-flying Makana residents as the municipality is considering developing the Grahamstown Aerodrome into a commercial airport.
The Makana Airport Legacy Project was proposed in a council meeting last week, after Grahamstown resident Ron Weissenberg made a presentation suggesting the idea to the mayoral committee earlier this month.
Weissenberg said that so many locals fly to places like Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban almost on a daily basis, but have to drive to either Port Elizabeth or East London to catch their flights.
In his view, setting up a local airport could have a number of commercial spin-offs and he advised the municipality on various options for such a project. One option would be to accommodate small air crafts with a capacity of 20 seats, which would cost between R4 to R7 million for such a facility.
Alternatively, they could accommodate medium air crafts with a capacity of 50 seats, costing about R12 to R20 million. A third option would be to accommodate large air crafts with a capacity of 160 seats, which would cost R30 to R45 million.
Various options were suggested to fund the proposed project, such as the municipality engaging in a public private partnership, or looking into using a private developer. After the presentation, the mayoral committee agreed that an item should be prepared for consideration by the full council, and the committee seemed to be in favour of the proposal.
They said that a service delivery model for the project must be explored, and the Provincial Treasury needs be approached to advise the municipality because of the complex nature of the project. But at Thursday's meeting, finance committee chairperson Pierre Ranchhod advised the council not to put the cart before a horse.
“Let us go through the whole procedure and see what positives and negatives there are, looking at opportunities of job creation. A feasibility study must be undertaken before the council can take the matter any further," he said.
Social services director Mandisi Planga agreed with Ranchhod, saying that the study shouldn't only assess the capacity of the municipality, but also discern whether providing such a service will provide value for money and address the needs of the poor, among other things.
