Plettenberg Bay Airport remains closed to scheduled commercial traffic

Passengers have been requested by Garden Route Aero (GRA), the operators of Plett Airport, to make direct contact with their airline and make ‘any necessary alternate travel arrangements’ as the airport will be closed to scheduled commercial traffic this summer season.

GRA spokesperson Deidre Davids said in a statement released on Tuesday that while GRA has made ‘significant progress’ in the refurbishment of Plettenberg Bay Airport’s runway, airport operations will remain limited to general aviation and private flights.

Commercial airlines, such as CemAir, will be unable to resume operations until the runway upgrades are completed.

Licence reclassification

Once completed, Plettenberg Bay Airport will be able to apply for the reclassification of its Category 5 licence, enabling the return of regional scheduled commercial flights.

Davids said work on the runway has moved beyond the initial groundwork phase into detailed engineering assessments.

She added that while ‘every effort’ is being made to complete the planning and engineering assessments by the end of this year, ‘the actual remedial works are scheduled to begin next year’.

“Considerable progress has been achieved in a short amount of time,” said Davids.

‘Important step’

“Having completed the detailed ground survey, our engineers are now well-equipped to develop the best solutions for ensuring the future resilience of the runway.

“This is an important step towards modernising the infrastructure at Plettenberg Bay Airport and restoring scheduled commercial flight operations.

“The necessary runway repairs and the re-establishment of critical services like fire and rescue will take time. This is not a short-term solution – we are adopting a long-term view to ensure the future sustainability of the airport.

“We’re also using the time to make improvements to the terminal building so that there is an improved passenger experience overall once the airport reopens.

Other improvements

“The building has essentially been gutted with new floors being added, new furniture and fittings, and other improvements being made.”

The airport has also acquired new refuelling equipment – two 30m3 tanks, one for Avgas and one for Jet A1.

“The detailed survey of the runway and associated areas has already been completed. This included falling weight deflection tests to measure the strength and elasticity of the runway’s pavement structure, as well as the digging of test pits along various sections to extract subgrade and foundational materials,” explained Davids.

She said the final engineering assessments ‘will guide decisions on base replacements or the potential need for a complete runway rebuild’.