By Cathy Dippnall Garden Route Reporter
GEORGE airport, which showed zero growth in 2006 due to SAA and 1time withdrawing over a year ago, has seen a 12% growth since the reintroduction of 1time at the beginning of April.
“April has been the busiest month since 2005,” said George airport manager Yvette Schoeman.
She said the reintroduction of 1time and the increase in the number of passengers over Easter and over the long weekend had contributed to the overall growth.
Schoeman said with 1time‘s presence and other additional flights scheduled, as well as Nationwide‘s larger aircraft, 600 more seats had been allocated to the George route and all aircraft were full.
The manager of 1time airline in George, Mike van Niekerk, said the return of the airline had occurred at the right time, during holidays and festivals that were taking place in April.
“We have done much better than we expected, and may possibly consider increasing the frequency of our aircraft to George,” he said.
1time pulled out of George in March, 2006, because it could not cope with the demand at the time due to a lack of aircraft.
Schoeman said building at the George airport, which has been undergoing a R42-million upgrade, had now been completed. “There is only a two-week snag list to be sorted out.”
She also said that as soon as the snags had been sorted out retailers would be able to complete their shop-fittings and they should be ready to open their outlets by mid-May.