26 Nov 2020

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Peggy Serame says government has used over P2.67 billion for refurbishment and or construction of national airports in the past 10 years.

Minister Serame, who was answering a question in Parliament on behalf of the Minister of Transport and Communication, said P724 million was used in the refurbishment of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport including extension of runaway, new parallel taxiway, new cargo apron, lighting and passenger terminal building between 2008 and 2010.

She said for Maun International Airport, government used P533 million for new air traffic control tower, new air services area, new runway, parallel taxiway, apron and lighting. 

She said the passenger terminal building was also being refurbished.

The PG Matante International Airport was refurbished with a total amount of over P474 million from August 2010 to March 2011.

The refurbished areas include new runway, apron and lighting, new passenger terminal, ancillary buildings and car park.

For the Kasane Airport, P685 million was used for refurbishments that included airside and landside works from November 2011 to November 2017.

Ms Serame said the amount of money invested for refurbishment or construction of airports was based on the forecast traffic for the airports at the time of the feasibility study.

She said the feasibility study was based on a planning window of 15 -20 years and reviews of the Airport master plans were conducted every five years to align traffic projections with actual statistics.

“Reviews of the master plans for Sir Seretse Khama and PG Matante airports were conducted in 2015 and 2019 respectively. 

The master plans reviews for Maun and Kasane Airports are next to be done,” she said.

She said the capacities of airports was based on the numbers of passengers that used the airport and was normally tabulated on an annual basis.

Ms Serame said when Botswana airports were being planned for during the feasibility studies done from 2002 to 2006, traffic projection assumed linear growth of between 5-8 per cent per annum as the economy was performing well.

The minister said the outbreak of diseases such as SARS had affected air travelling globally.

She added that the closure of several mines and opening of other businesses in the country had an impact on the traffic volumes at our airports.

Ms Serame said while studies indicated that there would be a need to increase capacity in some of the airports, the current trends indicated that the existing capacity would be adequate up to 2030.

The minister was answering a question from Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando, who wanted to know the total amount used for the refurbishment or construction of Botswana airports in the past ten financial years.

The legislator also wanted to know how Botswana airports ranked in terms of traffic as well as the number of landing and departing planes. ends