The company has already secured the lease to manage Plettenberg Bay Airport under the name of Garden Route Aero and is currently in the process of acquiring an airport at the Gariep Dam in the Free State, as reported byDeon Cloete, managing director of the Cape Winelands Airport and executive director of RSA.AERO, stated that the Cape Winelands Airport would serve as the group’s ‘central airport’, but they also have aspirations to be a ‘network operator’.
Besides the Plettenberg Bay Airport, RSA.AERO also acquired an airport close to the Gariep Dam with the goal of developing it for ‘adventure aviation activities’, such as hot air ballooning and microlight flights, according to Cloete.‘If you fly to Cape Town and come and spend a week in Stellenbosch, you must have the option of going to the Garden Route and from there, to the likes of Sun City, Pilanesberg and even Victoria Falls and back again before you go back to Europe,’ said Cloete.
The company’s current expansion programme, as well as upgrades at the Cape Winelands airport, is underway and is said to conclude in 2027. Environmental Impact Assessment processes are currently taking place, with ‘public consultations’ envisioned for the remainder of the year, according to Cloete.Key features of the upgraded airport will include vineyards that serve as part of the landscaping aesthetics to portray the region’s ‘wine culture’, open spaces that will include a plaza, hotel, conference centre, a wine-tasting experience, an outdoor amphitheatre for events of ‘up to 5 000 people’ and an aviation museum.