Name of the Project
Cape Winelands Airport.
Location
The project is located 13 km north-east of Durbanville, on the northern outskirts of Cape Town, in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Project Owner/s
Cape Winelands Airport is owned and operated by RSA Aero.
Growthpoint Properties has taken an equity position in the airport and is the project’s development and managing partner for the wider aviation precinct. Its role covers property and asset management across the logistics, commercial and hospitality components of the precinct, excluding the terminal buildings.
Project Description
The project entails the development of a privately owned commercial airport on the site of the former Fisantekraal Airfield, which was established in 1943 as a South African Air Force base for Lockheed Ventura bombers. The airfield is operating as a general aviation facility and flight training base.
Cape Winelands Airport is planned as Cape Town’s second major airport and is intended to support scheduled domestic and international passenger and cargo operations, general aviation, alternate and reliever airport functions, logistics activity and related commercial-property development.
It will accommodate two-million international tourists and three-million domestic travellers a year by 2050, taking overall passenger traffic to the region from 10-million to 20-million passengers a year.
Construction work will include a new boutique terminal, a realigned Code 4F runway and aircraft parking stands, upgraded airside systems, a cargo processing facility, additional hangars, fuelling facilities, warehousing and logistics facilities, hotel accommodation and a heliport.
The airport has four runways, one of which will be realigned and extended to a Code 4F runway built to a new orientation capable of accommodating wide-body aircraft. A secondary runway, 700 m long, will primarily focus on small planes in crosswind conditions.
The new terminal building will include state-of-the-art processing facilities, with technology-led check-in, baggage handling and security systems.
The 450 ha developable estate is intended to support the wider aviation precinct, including logistics, as well as commercial and hospitality operations.
Boogertman + Partners’ 2026 architectural concept envisages a terminal form rooted in the Winelands and Swartland landscape, with an undulating glass-and-steel design intended to support phased expansion and high environmental standards.
Potential Job Creation
The development could sustain about 35 000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction and expansion phases, and just more than 100 000 direct and indirect jobs during its first 20 years of operation.
Capital Expenditure
The project is expected to require an initial investment of between R8-billion and R10-billion.
Planned Start/End Date
Subject to the conclusion of the remaining regulatory and licensing processes, the first phase of construction, comprising enablement works, is expected to start in the last quarter of 2026. Commissioning of the airport is targeted for the latter part of 2028.
Latest Developments
Cape Winelands Airport received environmental authorisation from the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning on October 27, 2025. Six appeals were lodged against the decision; one was subsequently withdrawn and the remaining appeals were dismissed in 2026, bringing the appeals process to a close.
Cape Winelands Airport and Stellenbosch University have entered into a cooperation agreement to advance “smart” and “green” development linked to the airport expansion.
The agreement is intended to align academic research, industry expertise and infrastructure development, with focus areas including agriculture and food processing, spatial planning, transport and logistics, space and aviation research, and the integration of airport operations with urban development.
The partnership is also expected to support applied research opportunities, including potential engineering management projects at master’s level, as well as possible testing, innovation, prototyping and future production spaces linked to aviation, infrastructure, logistics and smart technologies.
Boogertman + Partners has been appointed lead architect and will work with amd.sigma, a Berlin-based airport development company, on the airport’s architectural vision and design integration. The design concept blends the airport complex with the topography and agricultural character of the Winelands and Swartland region, and targets leading environmental ratings and certifications.
WBHO remains the appointed contractor for the technical development and construction of the airport complex, while Growthpoint Properties will oversee delivery and manage the logistics, commercial and hospitality components of the wider precinct over the long term.
The build programme, therefore, remains subject to the remaining regulatory and licensing processes.
Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Growthpoint Properties (development and managing partner for the wider aviation precinct); WBHO (technical development and construction); Boogertman + Partners (lead architect and architectural-vision/design-integration lead); amd.sigma (airport development company and design-integration partner); PACE Aerospace Engineering & IT GmbH (fuel-planning assessment); and Stellenbosch University (smart and sustainable development cooperation, applied research and skills-development partner).
Contact Details for Project Information
Cape Winelands Airport, tel +27 21 271 0501 or email info@capewinelands.aero.
