IN SHORT: South Africa’s Airports Company of South Africa is exploring private sector concession models for its airport network as part of a R21.7 billion ($1.2 billion) infrastructure programme, with a new national airport development plan flagging long-term concessions and private management as an explicit strategic direction. The ACSA network handles 86% of South Africa’s passenger volumes.
South Africa is opening its state-owned airport network to private sector concessions for the first time, with the Airports Company of South Africa committing R21.7 billion ($1.2 billion) to infrastructure upgrades at OR Tambo, Cape Town International and King Shaka while simultaneously publishing an airport development plan that explicitly explores private management and financing models.
The Business Day reported today that the Department of Transport’s plan noted increasing global precedent for long-term private concessions at airports, with both developed and emerging markets granting private companies management rights through concession and lease structures.
- Cape Town International Airport is the centrepiece of the upgrade programme with R10.1 billion ($570 million) in planned works, including a new realigned 3,500 metre runway estimated at R6.39 billion with contractor appointment targeted for December 2026. Terminal expansions for domestic and international passengers, additional aircraft stands, improved security systems including full-body scanners, and expanded self-service boarding will follow in phases through 2029.
- ACSA posted 27.2 million passengers across its network in 2023/24, still recovering toward pre-pandemic levels of 32.5 million. Cape Town International hit 98% of pre-COVID volumes in 2024/25 with a record 39,214 passengers on a single day in December.
- The R21.7 billion investment is the largest ACSA programme since the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Funding is through ACSA’s own balance sheet, which returned to profitability with R816 million in dividends declared in 2024.
- The airport development plan also notes that smaller airports are being exploited for illegal activities including drug trafficking, weapons, contraband and human trafficking as security tightens at major hubs — new countermeasures are being implemented.
- South Africa’s only privately owned major airport, Lanseria International in Johannesburg, will also see significant upgrades from 2026 including new maintenance facilities and taxiway upgrades to accommodate Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft.
- Currently 74.6% government-owned, ACSA is legally and financially autonomous under commercial law. Any concession transactions would require regulatory and shareholder approvals but the directional signal is clear.
The move positions South Africa alongside Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt as African economies actively seeking private capital to co-develop airport infrastructure at a time when passenger volumes and air cargo demand are growing faster than government budgets can match.
The Bigger Picture: Africa needs an estimated $170 billion in aviation infrastructure investment over the next two decades, according to IATA. South Africa’s signal that ACSA’s nine airports are open to private concession models is significant because ACSA is the continent’s most professionally managed airport operator by revenue and passenger volume. A successful private concession at OR Tambo or Cape Town, with transparent pricing and clear performance benchmarks, would become the template every other African airport privatisation is measured against. The prize for private investors is a network that handles the bulk of sub-Saharan Africa’s international air traffic.
Source: Business Day
