Comair may buy Durban International

Comair, a British Airways franchise, may buy South Africa’s Durban International Airport since state-owned Airports Company South Africa is building another airport, LaMercy, north of the city.

According to Comair CEO Gidon Novick, Comair, which owns low-cost airline kulula.com, plans to buy the facility together with another South African airport company. Comair’s partner would manage the airport, which Novick said the company would like to own before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “Comair is offering an easy solution to the problem of how to dispose of the existing Durban airport.”

Comair, which already operates out of Lanseria as an alternative airport in Gauteng, is looking at a similar arrangement in KwaZulu-Natal, where ACSA will run the main airport and Comair will be able to have the use of (and own) the alternative airport. Novick said that buying the airport made sense because the KwaZulu-Natal coast consisted of about 150km of populated urban areas, and with the new airport on the north coast Comair could service the city of Durban as well as the south coast.

14 October 2009