Upington Airport is an airport located in

Upington, Northern Cape Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...

, South Africa. At , runway 17/35 is one of the longest runways in the world. The high elevation of the airport, extremely high summer temperatures and the fact that it was designed for the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

necessitated the extreme length of the main runway.

History

With the fall of the Portuguese regime in Angola,

South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...

lost its landing rights in

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

. In addition to restrictions to overflying African states, there was concern that the country would lose its landing rights at the Ivory Coast and

Ilha do Sal Sal (Portuguese for "salt") is an island in Cape Verde. Sal is a tourist destination with white sandy beaches and over 350 days of sunshine a year. It is one of the three sandy eastern islands of the Cape Verde archipelago in the central Atlantic ...

(Cape Verde). Upington Airport's runway was built to accommodate a

with a full load of passengers, cargo and fuel, so that it could take off for Europe without having to stop along the way. Upington was chosen because of its strategic position, availability of land and comparatively lower height

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

than

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. Upington Airport was opened in 1968 as

Pierre van Ryneveld General Sir Hesperus Andrias van Ryneveld, (2 May 1891 – 2 December 1972), known as Sir Pierre van Ryneveld, was a South African military commander. He was the founding commander of the South African Air Force. Military career Van Ryneveld ...

Airport. In 1974, a corrugated iron fire station was erected but this structure was converted into administrative offices for airport management and other administrative staff in 1996 and the fire station was relocated. From August 1976 to December 1982, South African Airways made use of Upington as a refuelling station for two weekly scheduled

flights to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. , Upington Airport was to be developed into a major cargo hub that will serve

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

directly from South Africa's

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

Province. As well as improvements to the airport itself, ACSA will be preparing land around the airport for development to support the inevitable boost to the local economy. As of 2009, planning was also under way at Upington Airport to construct a facility for the long-term parking of ''mothballed'' (decommissioned) aircraft.

Airlines and destinations

Non-scheduled services

Upington Airport serves as an international cargo hub. Most flights are non-scheduled chartered flights operating in the months of November to January to export grapes from the region directly to Europe and other countries. As much as 1,000,000 tonnes of grapes are exported every year. Many major car manufacturers bring their cars and commercial vehicles to Upington to test them in the hot dry and sunny conditions, when there is winter in Europe. These cars and test teams are flown into and out of Upington Airport using chartered planes. Cars used the N14 between

Pofadder Pofadder is the Afrikaans name for Bitis arietans, puff adder (snake). Pofadder may also refer to: * Pofadder, Northern Cape, a small town in South Africa * Pofadder (food), a traditional South African food made from the same ingredients as Skilpa ...

and

Kakamas Kakamas is a town founded in 1898 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. Originated as at a place where the Orange River could be relatively easily crossed. The spot was first known as Basso ...

. The road has a speed limit of for authorized vehicles

Airport services and capacity

Services at Upington Airport include: * One terminal building (combined arrival and departure hall) * Information desk * Conference room accommodating up to 12 persons * Five different car rental companies * Public parking for up to 58 cars * Basic first aid facilities Statistics for the 2007 financial year at Upington Airport: * 19,961 departing passengers * 3,694 arriving air traffic movements * Current consolidated capacity: 40,000 passengers * Aircraft parking bays: 20 Flying services include: * Control tower (frequency 121.30) * Apron services (frequency 122.65) * Refuelling service by Engen Aviation providing

Avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, w ...

and

Jet-A1 Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial av ...

* General aviation area including parking * VOR and RNAV instrument approach procedure for runway 35 * Runway centreline lights, end lights, edge lights and PAPI for runways 01/19 and 17/35 * Runway 08/26 only to be used for taxi purposes at night and during IMC * Fire and rescue services (CAT 5), upgrade-able to CAT 8 with 7 days prior notice * Upington Weather Office *The airport has cargo services to and from Leipzig with AirBridge Cargo(Boeing 747-8F)

Statistics

References

External links

Official aerodrome chart for FAUP
– SACAA Website
Upington Airport Homepage
– ACSA Website
South African Airlink Homepage

{{authority control Airports in South Africa Transport in the Northern Cape Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality