The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 12

OR Tambo International Airport is South Africa’s and Acsa’s largest airport.
Africa’s airport expansion may
give some relief to contractors
Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has forecast R20-billion of capex on infrastructure in
the next five years, primarily at three of its international airports. The biggest projects have
been funded and are ready to go on tender in 2019.
Speaking at the latest South African Forum of Civil
Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC) annual national
conference, Acsa group executive: technical services &
solutions, Girish Gopal, outlined Acsa’s capital expenditure
programme over the next five years in its international
network, mostly in South Africa.
Acsa has a growth strategy underpinned by three pillars:
running airports, developing airports, and growing its
footprint beyond South Africa. It provides technical and
advisory services to airports outside South Africa in Liberia,
Ghana, and Zambia, and has two equity holdings in airports
in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Mumbai (India).
The company, being profitable, was a rarity among SOEs,
though its profitability was hammered last year by a 35%
cut in its aeronautical tariff (which had been hiked to fund
the pre-FIFA Soccer World Cup infrastructure). Its 22%
gearing level is well within its governance target, and it
therefore funds its own capital expenditure and is not reliant
on government.
Does Acsa need new capacity?
The capital expenditure programme is largely based on
traffic forecasts, with traffic numbers forecast to grow at
just more than 3% a year, said Gopal. “Among the network
10 | CEC February 2019
of airports, there is approximately 50-million departing
passengers. Broken down to individual airports, OR Tambo
(Johannesburg’s international airport) is the largest and is
projected to grow from about 20-million to 25-million or
26-million passengers over the next five years; Cape Town
has 10 million and is expected over the five years to grow to
about 15 million; King Shaka would grow from five million
to about 7.5 million. We use these numbers to design our
infrastructure investment.
“We also look at air traffic movements, which is a landing
and a take-off and which affects the runway infrastructure
and parking for aircraft. This is forecast to grow over the
period from 400 000 to just over 450 000. Per airport,
we’re looking at OR Tambo growing from 200 000 to about
250 000; Cape Town growing from 80 000 to 100 000; and
King Shaka a bit less.”
“The capital expenditure programme is a budgeted
amount, which may be moderated as some expenditure is
pushed out by a year or two. We categorise our projects
in terms of capacity; commercial development; efficiency
and technology; replacement and refurbishment; and
compliance. The bigger numbers are sitting in the
capacity projects: in 2019, just over R1-billion, but it
grows to R4-billion (2020), over R5-billion in 2021, and
thereafter reduces slightly. There was a delay of about
www.civilsonline.co.za