Africa’s biggest airport sees 21m passengers a year | World | News
Africa’s largest airport is unsurprisingly located in Johannesburg, the largest city of South Africa, with over 20 million passengers now walking through its terminal every 12 months.
The OR Tambo International Airport is located in Kempton Park around 14 miles to the east of Johannesburg city centre.
Passenger numbers have steadily increased over the past two decades with around 50 percent of the country’s air passengers using the terminals.
Just 17.7million passed through the airport in 2006/07 but recent upgrades have allowed expansion.
From 2017/18, around 21.3million passengers used the airport annually to travel across all four corners of the globe.
According to Airports Company South Africa, OR Tambo now has the capacity to facilitate 28 million passengers per year.
The experts claim the airport has an hourly air traffic movement capacity of 53 planes with around 86.68 percent of journeys arriving on time.
OR Tambo boasts: “The two runways at the airport have been built longer [than] most airports due the altitude being 1,700 metres above sea level, making them some of the longest runways in the world.
“The air is more rarified and provides less air friction to assist deceleration on approach and landing and less lift on take-off.
“It as one of only 4 airports in the world that fly scheduled non-stop services to all six inhabited continents, the others being Abu-Dhabi, Doha and Dubai.”
The airport was opened as the Jan Smuts Airport in 1952, costing around £6.1million to construct.
The area was used as a test airport for Concorde during the 1970s while many international airlines stopped flying to the airport during the 1980s apartheid years.
The airport was renamed the Johannesburg International Airport in 1994 and rebranded again in 2006.
The airport is now named in honour of Oliver Reginald Tambo, an anti-apartheid politician who served as President of the African National Congress for almost 25 years.
OR Tambo International Airport isn’t just for passenger services with cargo also passing through the terminals.
Airports Company South Africa claims the centre has a “cargo facilitation capacity” of 650,000 tonnes per annum.
A staggering 115,500 parking bays serve the terminal while rial links make access simple for passengers.
Inside the terminal, visitors can enjoy a wide range of services with high-class retail options available.
Burberry, Ferrari and HugoBoss and Nike all have stores at OR Tambo to name just a few.
