By Rob Russell, assisted by Paul van Rensburg
Cape Town International Airport has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small airfield at Wingfield. Wingfield was once a large piece of open land far from the centre of Cape Town and thus ideally suited for development as an airfield.
Following the outbreak of World War II former Cape Town mayor and businessman, David Pieter de Villiers Graaff, sold the land to the government to aid the war effort on the condition that it would revert to his estate when the war was concluded and the government had no further military use for it. In the war years, it was a fleet air arm base used by the Royal Navy.
September 1939 saw the formation of 15 Squadron SAAF at Germiston, with three former SAA Junkers JU68. After moving to Wingfield, the squadron was absorbed as A Flight of 32 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm. They were used for maritime patrols. Wingfield was used extensively by the Fleet Air Arm and amongst other Squadrons there, was 804 Naval Air Squadron, with Hellcat II aircraft.
In 1939, Alex Henshaw, Chief Test Pilot for Britain’s Spitfire fighter aircraft, flew a modified Percival Mew Gull registered G-AEXF and set several records for solo flights between Gravenshead, Kent (now RAF Gravenshead), Wingfield, and back. Some of these speed records still stand today.
Wingfield became the first Cape Town municipal airport, from the end of the war, until the move to the present airfield, after which the SAAF took over the management of Wingfield and it evolved into a large military base. The history of Wingfield is synonymous with the history of flight in South Africa, including pioneering attempts at commercial aviation.
Realizing that Wingfield was becoming unsuitable for expansion and further development, the then SA Government decided to build another airport, this time in Bellville. The airport was opened in 1954, a year after Jan Smuts Airport (now OR Tambo International) in Kempton Park. Originally named Bellville Airport, due to its proximity to the town of the same name, it served as a domestic airport. At the request of the Bellville Federation of Taxpayers, the airport was renamed after the then SA Prime Minister, D F Malan.
Located approximately 20 km from the centre of Cape Town, Cape Town International Airport, as it is now known, is the only airport in the greater Cape Town area offering scheduled passenger and cargo flights. From a small airport, offering scheduled flights around SA, it has grown to an airport that now offers scheduled flights around SA and to over 30 international destinations. The airport has domestic and International terminals, linked by a common central terminal. Over 28 airlines are currently operating at Cape Town International Airport.
Another user of the then-new airport was the SAAF, which needed more and bigger facilities than those at its other base in Cape Town, namely Ysterplaat. This was due to urban development around Ysterplaat and the need for longer runways for the aircraft it was acquiring. The facilities at Cape Town, once completed, included a large apron and 4 hangars. This enabled the SAAF to move three squadrons to Cape Town. Before their opening, 35 Squadron Shackletons had ferry across from Ysterplaat, fuel up and depart on their ultra-long-range flights, as Ysterplaat runway was too short! The base was fondly known to all as “the Farm”, it having been built on a farm, lying adjacent to the airport.
The original airport was supposed to be in the shape of an X, with a runway running NE/SW but it ended up with two runways with similar directions. There is an urban legend about how these two runways came about. The builders muddled up true and magnetic north and could not make sense of their buildings of the runway until it was pointed out to them. They had by then built a considerable part of runway 16/34 and rather than stop it, they realigned themselves with the correct North and built 01/19 and finished 16/34. The NE/SW runway was never fully commissioned due to the building of the SAAF area.
Further airfield expansion:
BOAC(subsequently becoming British Airways) identified Cape Town as a possible destination for its Concorde operations and entered into negotiations with the Dept of Transport to ensure that Cape Town was able to handle the Concorde. Primarily a longer runway was needed. This was completed in 1967 and after lengthening the runway south of taxiway Charlie, the runway was now 10,500ft long. Included in the upgrade was a new approach lighting system, which extended over and south of the N2 highway. Unfortunately, the development of widebody passenger jets meant that non-stop flights from Europe to South Africa were being spoken about. The Concorde did not have the range to fly non-stop, requiring a landing at Roberts Field (Monrovia), which meant the total flying time was much the same as a non-stop flight on a 747, so scheduled flights using the Concorde never materialised. But Cape Town had scored a long runway, which was to prove vital in the safe operation of SAA flights, which in order to get to Europe non-stop, whilst flying around the bulge of Africa, needed such a long runway. The taxiways on the eastern side of the airfield were also extended, but due to financial constraints, these were financed by the Air Force. In those days, the heaviest aircraft they operated were the Shackeltons and the C130s, so they were only built for medium aircraft!
Keen aviators would have noticed that there is nowadays almost constant maintenance required on the threshold of Runway 19 and Taxiway A, but no work was done on the threshold of Runway 01. The reason for this was that the original runway was built in the 1950s and heavy jets along the lines of B747s, DC10s and Lockheed TriStars never existed. So the runway was designed with the heaviest aircraft in mind and that was the Lockheed Constellation. By the time the runway was extended, these heavy jets were being spoken about, so the threshold of the extended runway was built to handle these jets. Having 100 plus medium and heavy jets pounding the threshold of runway 19 daily, has meant the threshold has quite literally been pounded to death and the only way to properly fix it, is to dig down into the foundation and rebuild it up from there. ACSA is hoping to avoid that option, with the planned new runway, but that is looking very unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Having spent all the money expanding the runway, Concorde finally made an appearance in 1973 at Cape Town and again in 1976 for more trials. Over the years it also made other visits, but these were charter flights. They often bought passengers in to join the Cunard line ships. It was on one of these charter flights that Concorde set the speed record for a flight from London to Cape Town. The time was just over 8 hours, including the stop in Monrovia to refuel. It was not uncommon for the ATCs to ask the departing crews to give a fly-by before setting course and spectacular they were. On one flight, the crew departed runway 19 and with a spectacular left turn, set course over the airfield to Robben Island. The crew accelerated rapidly and the aircraft was in supersonic flight just after passing Robben Island.
In the mid-70s, there was a wheels-up landing of a Shackelton - they were unable to lower the gear and after skidding across the grass, it came to a rest next to taxiway G. A decision was taken, by the SAAF, to rebuild the aircraft, so an apron and hangar were built around the Shack and it was duly rebuilt! After this successful operation, the hangar was dismantled and the apron, rather than standing idle, became a well-used compass-swing bay!
In the mid-80s, with SAA wanting to operate non-stop flights from Europe to Cape Town and with limited diversion airfields in the area, it was decided to upgrade the two Instrument Landing Systems. This project involved upgrading Runway 01 to Cat3 and Runway 19 to Cat2. Allied to this was an upgrade of the approach and runway lighting systems. Why the different categories for the runways, you ask? Well with the northerly winds, fog often drifted in from Table Bay and was a serious problem, especially in Spring and Autumn, so it was decided to put in a Cat3 ILS. With runway 19 in use and the southerly prevailing winds, fog was not a problem but low stratus was, so Cat3 was not needed, but Cat2 was.
With the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s, 1993 saw ownership transferred from the Dept of Transport to the newly formed Airports Company South Africa, and the airport was renamed to the politically neutral Cape Town International Airport. The first years of the twenty-first century saw tremendous growth at the airport; from handling 6.2 million passengers per annum in 2004–05, the airport peaked at 8.4 million passengers per annum in 2007–08 before falling back to 7.8 million in 2008–09. In 2016, the airport saw a 29% increase in international arrivals and also saw the airport handled 10 million passengers per annum.
Proposed Name change
On 16 April 2018, it was reported in the Cape Times that the Minister of Transport, Bonginkosi Nzimande, had directed ACSA on 22 March 2018 to change the name of Cape Town International Airport to Nelson Mandela International Airport. The proposed name change promoted heated political debate. On 5 March 2019, the EFF filed a motion in Parliament calling for Cape Town International Airport to be renamed after anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Needless to say, there was fierce opposition to this from many sources. Some Khoi activists, meanwhile, argued for the airport to be named after the Uriǁ'aeǀona translator Krotoa or Eva van Meerhof as she was also known. However, South Africa's Parliament was not constitutionally empowered to enact name changes: the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) held that responsibility. The motion was unsuccessful. In February 2021, the Cape Times reported that the proposed name change of the airport had been "quietly ditched". And sensibly too.
Further airfield developments
In preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Cape Town International Airport was extensively expanded and renovated. The main focus was the development of a Central Terminal Building at a cost of R1.6 billion, which linked the formerly separate domestic and international terminals and provided a common check-in area. The departure level of the Central Terminal opened in November 2009, with the entire building opened in April 2010.
In May 2015, Airports Company South Africa announced a R7.7 billion expansion for the airport. The expansion was to include the upgrades of the Domestic & International terminals, as well as expanding the apron and a new longer runway, The expansion was postponed in 2020, due to the onset of the Covid lockdown. With passenger numbers and aircraft movements increasing rapidly again, there is talk of the project going ahead again. With the current financial state of ACSA and the Government, this development could be years away from happening, if at all. But ACSA needs to do something soon, as the terminal and apron are fast reaching maximum capacity.
Some interesting highlights include:
In 1968 the SA Red Cross Society moved their operations from Youngsfield to DF Malan airport. This vital service was manned by volunteer pilots, many of them from the local flying clubs. Many people owe their lives to the vital service provided by these intrepid men. This service has now evolved into the Air Mercy Service, a full-time organisation with its own hangars and operation, within the General Aviation Area.
Cape Town assumed international status in the mid-70s with the introduction of weekly flights from South America by Aerolinas Argentina, with a B707. This resulted in a hastily erected prefab building to serve as the international terminal. Controllers of the day had to be quite careful and watch these flights, as it was not uncommon for the aircraft to mistake Ysterplaat for Cape Town and try and land there.
In 1976, Boeing 747SP aircraft were introduced to the SAA fleet and immediately set a world record. To demonstrate its long-range capability, the first aircraft was flown non-stop from the Boeing Company factory in Seattle to Cape Town during its delivery flight. This was a world record for a commercial aircraft; The 747SP ZS-SPA flew 10,290 miles (16,507 km) nonstop in 17h 22m. The MTOW of the 747SP at Paine Field was 323,547 kg with 50 passengers on board. This record stood for over a decade.
1977 saw the first international flight from Cape Town to London, operated by SAA, with their newly acquired 747SP fleet. The flight departed on a Friday night and returned on Sunday morning. It was the highlight of the week for many Capetonians, to head to the airport and watch the aircraft land back from London Heathrow.
Early 1980s saw regular monthly visits by LOT using an Ilyushin IL62, for fishing boat crew changes. Before that, these were often flown by KLM with a DC8. It was strange to see this charter operated by an airline from a communist country.
In the 1980s the SABC acquired the rights to broadcast the series Dallas. This was a hit with all those that possessed Televisions and the country came to a standstill each Tuesday night. Tuesday nights were also the evenings when 27 Squadron did their weekly night flying, which invariably involved several aircraft being in the circuit around the airfield. It was not unusual for the poor controllers, on duty in the tower, to be inundated with threatening phone calls from members of the public, as the Albatross aircraft were making so much noise, they could not follow Dallas.
The 6 November 1989 saw the introduction of low-cost flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The launch of Skybird was a joint venture between SAA and Safair and use was made of a Safair B707 to operate these flights. Amongst the packages offered, which were all booked via Computicket, was one including a 4 day stayover in Cape Town. This price started from about R530.
29 Nov 1989 saw a Safair L382 Hercules under the command of Andre le Uys conduct a flight down to the roaring 40s to conduct a search for Philip Poupon, whose yacht had capsized in the solo non-stop around the world race. The aircraft flew for 6 hours down to the search area and against all odds was able to locate the upturned yacht. After Philip emerged from under his yacht, a Lindholme survival gear was dropped from the rear of the Herc. Once deployed, Philip was able to leave his yacht enter the liferaft and await rescue, a few days later from another race participant. Total flying time was just under 16 hours, made possible by the fitting of long-range tanks. The SAAF did not possess the capability to do the search. What made this even more remarkable was it was before the days of GPS and reliance was made on Omega nav systems to assist in the search. Also on board the aircraft was another Safair captain, he started his aviation career as a navigator in the SAAF - Roes de Villiers. Roes filled the role of navigator on this flight.
A few weeks later, Safair undertook another flight down to the roaring 40s. This time the flight was sponsored by Safmarine. The purpose was to take family and press down to search for Bertie Reed, who was also partaking in the race. Despite terrible weather, they were able to locate the yacht and briefly see Bertie, before visual contact was lost. This flight was also under the command of Andre le Uys!
In 1992 SAA started non-stop flights to Miami in the USA, with their newly acquired B747-400s. It was then one of the longest non-stop routes operated worldwide.
In 1992, BMW chartered a BA Concorde to do promotional flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg to promote the new 3 series motorcars. The aircraft departed out over False Bay, went supersonic along the coastline decelerated near Margate and then proceeded on to Johannesburg for a landing. The aircraft spent a week in South Africa and was adorned with a flying Springbok and SAA logo.
In the 90s, flights were undertaken down to the Antarctic. Antarctic Logistics Center International (ALCI) has been operating flights from Cape Town to Antarctica during the Antarctic summer season (November to the end of February), using the Ukranian-built Ilyushin 76.
In 2025 numerous airlines operated both scheduled and charter flights to the Antarctic, utilising various destinations. Apart from the Ilyushins, airlines included HiFly which operated an A340-300, NorseAir a B787 and many European charter operators flying long-range business jets as well as a B737 8 Max.
