For years, the Cape Winelands airfield in South Africa has been where pilots learn to fly. Soon, it will be where international passengers board. The airport, about 16 miles from Cape Town International, will begin renovations in April 2027 to become a full-scale commercial hub that its developers say will not compete with, but complete its larger neighbor.
RSA Aero Limited, the company behind the project, wants Cape Winelands to serve as a secondary airport for Cape Town, to take pressure off the city’s existing international hub while opening new services across the continent. “We will fulfil different routes, different time slots,” Nicholas Ferguson, its managing director, told CNN.
He added that Cape Winelands already has five signed agreements with major airlines and plans to add more. Ferguson sees an opening in offering direct routes within Africa, a market that remains vastly under connected.
“We’ve got that geographic advantage, being at the tip of a continent, and we need to leverage it,” he said. “We want to grow as much as possible. But realistically, intra-Africa direct routes into Nigeria are where we start.”
Adele Klingenberg, director of planning and strategy at Cape Winelands Airport, also framed the airport’s route strategy as a bet on the continent. “There’s a huge focus on Africa,” she said. “We want to make sure that we really unlock intra-Africa travel.”
While home to almost a fifth of the world’s population, Africa accounts for just 2% of global air traffic, according to a recent study by the International Air Transport Association. It’s a gap that African aviation expert Dr. Eyden Samunderu said reflects deeper problems.
“Intra-African air travel is held back not by a lack of airports or demand potential, but by a tangle of structural and political constraints,” he said. “Today, intra-African flights are roughly 45% more expensive than intra-European routes. High ticket prices are driven by heavy government taxes, airport facility fees and navigation charges. Jet fuel typically accounts for 40% of operating costs, which is the double the global average.”
Visas are another expense. African passport holders need a visa ahead of departure for around 50% of intra-continental trips, and visa-free access applies to only about 28% of journeys, which further discourages movement.
“On top of this, Africa’s airspace is fragmented by national regulations and protectionist policies that prioritize state-owned airline companies and restrict traffic rights, slowing down the implementation of open-skies commitments,” Samunderu added.
The result is a patchwork of poor connectivity, he said: only about 19% of intra-African routes have direct flights, leaving passengers to zigzag through regional hubs or even airports outside Africa. But Samunderu argues that South Africa, as the continent’s “most developed air transport market,” has taken the lead in liberalizing its skies and building a continental gateway.
“New airports like Cape Winelands could send a strong message, as a viable project that’s complementing what already exists,” he said.
“Cape Winelands airport has the opportunity of easing off the nearby airport’s congestion, export more local agricultural goods like wine, fruits and time-sensitive products, as well as creating jobs in the region,” he added.
The airport, which aims to start passenger flights in 2029, promises new jobs, new businesses, and even a new neighborhood. Six appeals were lodged against the construction, citing noise, environmental pollution and socio-economic impact, but all were dismissed. Klingenberg described a development that could benefit the whole region.
“There will be a mix of restaurants, retail opportunities, hotels, and then also hangars for general aviation. The surrounding land parcels will even have warehousing facilities, storage facilities,” she said.
“It’s sort of a new neighborhood, a new precinct for the bigger Durbanville and Cape Town area,” she added. “It’s also about contributing to the bigger area. There’s going to be job creation and a positive impact on the region.”
That vision extends to the look and feel of the place. Wessel Van Dyk, a director at Boogertman & Partners Architects, said the goal was to root the building in its surroundings. “Landscaping is very important so that you’ll see a lot of vineyards,” he said. “There’s a very formal access as you arrive. That all comes from the cultural heritage of the Cape Winelands area. And we implemented those elements into our precinct plan, our urban design, and ultimately our terminal building as well.”
Klingenberg said the aim is to grow from 2 million annual passengers when it opens to 8 million by 2050.
