The
Swaziland Tourist Authority (STA) falsified statistics on the number of
passengers using the new King Msawati III Airport (KMIII) to make it look a
success when it was not.
And, the
deception is part of an ongoing mission of misinformation about the success of
the airport that has spanned several year.
Figures
for January 2015 were used by Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA), aided
by the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati, to state that the airport had defied its critics
and was a success.
The STA
reported that there were 10,138 passengers departing the airport in January
2015 and 6,592 passengers arriving, making a total of 16,730 passengers.
But these
figures were entirely bogus. There are only three flights per day departing the
airport and another three arriving. The airport serves only one route – to OR Tambo
Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Swaziland Airlink is the only passenger airline
that uses the airport. Airlink uses the Embraer J135 aircraft which has a
maximum seating capacity of 50.
If every
flight was full a maximum of 150 people per day could depart the airport, which
would make a maximum of 4,500 per month. The 4,500 is only 44 per cent of the
numbers of passengers claimed by STA. The total possible number of passengers
either departing or arriving at the airport could not be more than 9,000 in a
month: 53 per cent of the figure claimed.
No true
figure for the actual number of people travelling by plane is available
publically but anecdotal evidence suggests that the planes are rarely much more
than two-thirds full, and often a lot less.
King
Mswati III Airport was built in a wilderness in Swaziland on the whim of King
Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. No research
was undertaken to determine the need for the airport.
Critics
of the airport argued for years that there was no
potential for the airport. Major airports already existed less than an
hour’s flying time away in South Africa with connecting routes to Swaziland and
there was no reason to suspect passengers would want to use KMIII airport as an
alternative.
During
the 11 years it took to build, the airport was called Sikhuphe, but the name
was changed in honour of the King when it officially opened in March 2014.
The
airport cost an estimated E2.5 billion (US$250 million) to build.
The Observer on Saturday reported
at the time of the opening, ‘The King stated unflinchingly that the airport
was not a joke as some pessimists had already hinted that the country does not
need such extravagance. He said the completion and commissioning of the airport
had proved all doubting Thomases wrong.’
The
newspaper added, ‘One thing was clear throughout the King’s address that he was
extremely passionate about the project and that it was very close to his
heart.’
When it
was opened the international
media derided the airport as a ‘white elephant’, meaning it was of little
use.
In
October 2013 a report from the International
Air Transport Association (IATA) said the airport was widely perceived as a
‘vanity
project’ because of its scale and opulence compared with the size and
nature of the market it seeks to serve.
Since it
opened only one commercial passenger airline, Swaziland Airlink, which is part-owned
by the Swazi Government, has used the Airport. The airline was forced
to move from the Matsapha Airport, even though an independent
business analysis predicted the airline would go out of business as a
result.
No other
airline has publically said it wanted to use the airport.
Matsapha
airport which handled about 70,000 passengers a year is close to Manzini and
Mbabane, the two main cities in Swaziland. The new airport was built in a
wilderness about 70km from Mbabane. Once it opened to traffic in September
2014, Matsapha was closed for commercial business. It is now mainly used by
King Mswati when he travels in his private luxury jet.
SWACAA
had said the KMIII airport would attract 300,000 passengers per year (820
per day on average), raising E7 million (US$700,000) per year in service
charges. In the present situation where only a maximum 300 people could travel
per day, the total it could ever hope to achieve would be 109,500; only 36
percent of the numbers needed for the airport to reach its target.
The Swazi Observer, which was described as a
‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ by the Media Institute of
Southern Africa in a report on media freedom in the kingdom, used the bogus
figure to talk up the airport’s supposed success.
The
newspaper first reported the figure in its Sunday edition on 12
April 2015 and again in its daily edition on 21
April 2015.
The
newspaper was determined to mislead its readers about the success of the
airport. The Sunday Observer, for example, in a
report headlined ‘KMIII Airport surpasses expectations’ said, ‘When it started
operating, sceptics were of the view that people would opt to travel by road
because of, among other reasons, the distant location of the airport, which is
situated about 70 kilometres from Mbabane.
‘However,
passengers going through KMIII International Airport have surpassed the numbers
that were recorded at the Matsapha Airport.’
The
newspaper quoted SWACAA Marketing and Corporate Affairs Director Sabelo Dlamini
saying, ‘We are noting that the figures are rising and for us, it points to a
brighter future in aviation. It is also an affirmation of the massive work the
government of Swaziland has done over the past five years to do right in the
civil aviation industry, in particular the construction of an airport facility
travellers are happy with.’
The
newspaper reported, ‘Dlamini further noted that the drop in numbers that had
been projected by critics had not happened at all.’
There
has been a long history of misinformation about the potential for success of
the airport. It was controversial from the moment the construction was
announced in 2003. The International Monetary
Fund said the airport should not be built because it would divert funds
away from much needed projects to fight poverty in Swaziland.
Today,
about seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in abject
poverty, with incomes less than US$2 per day, three
in ten are so hungry they are medically diagnosed as malnourished and the
kingdom has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.
The
false promises made about the airport are legion. In November
2013, SWACAA said that the Swazi Government was ready to recreate the
defunct Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation (RSNAC0) and would set about
purchasing a 100-seater jet, at a cost estimated by the Times of Swaziland of
E700 million (US$70 million). This compared to the E125 million budgeted
for free primary school education in Swaziland that year. It was never
explained where the money to buy the aircraft would come from.
SWACAA
said RSNAC would fly to 10 destinations in Africa and Asia. Observers estimated
RSNAC would probably need a minimum of 10 aircraft to service the routes. For
that to happen, Swaziland would have to spend about E7 billion on aircraft.
Such a sum of money would bankrupt the kingdom. To put the cost in context the
Central Bank of Swaziland has estimated the kingdom’s gross
official reserves were E8.24 billion at the month ended November 2013.
The
people were regularly misled about the opening date of the airport. At one time
the King confidently
announced it would be open in March 2010. Then his Prime Minister Barnabas
Dlamini said it would be ready for the FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South
Africa in June 2010, but this deadline came and went. SWACAA continued to issue
fresh completion dates but these were never met.
Bertram
Stewart, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and
Development also misled about the readiness of the airport to open.
In
October 2010, Stewart
said the airport would be open by the end of that year, but it was not. He
misled again in
February 2011 when he confidently told media the airport would be completed
by June 2011. It was not. He also said a number of top world airlines (that he
declined to name) were negotiating to use the airport, but nothing happened.
He returned
to the theme two months later in April 2011 when this time he said the
airport would be open by December 2011.
There
has also been constant misinformation about the prospect of airlines choosing
to use the airport.
In October
2009, King Mswati claimed Etihad Airways from the Gulf
State of Abu Dhabi was showing ‘deep interest’ in using the airport.
Nothing has been heard since.
In May
2011, the Swazi Observer reported Sabelo Dlamini
saying, ‘We have established possible routes which we want to market to the
operators. Some of the proposed routes from Sikhuphe are Durban, Cape Town,
Lanseria Airport in Sandton, Harare and Mozambique.’
In June
2012, he told
Swazi media that at least three airlines from different countries had
‘shown interest’ in using the airport, but he declined to name them. He remained
optimistic about the prospects for the future and said SWACAA was talking
to airlines in other countries as well.
Then in
February 2013 SWACAA Director Solomon Dube told
media in Swaziland, ‘We are talking to some including Kenya Airways,
Ethiopian Airline and various Gulf airlines.’
In March
2013 SWACAA
claimed five airlines had signed deals to use the airport when it
eventually opened, but an investigation by Swazi media Commentary revealed that
two of the airlines named did not exist. It also said Botswana Airways would
use the airport, but it has not.
In
October 2013 SWACAA claimed it had targeted
small and medium business travellers to use the airport. It said low-cost
airlines were interested in using Sikhuphe for business travellers who might
want to fly to nearby countries ‘on a daily basis’.
Now, in
April 2015, there are still no prospects of airlines other than Swazi Airlink
using the airport.
See also
AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’
PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS
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