South Africa’s contemporary airport geography, between past market dynamics and an uncertain future[La géographie aéroportuaire sud-africaine contemporaine, entre la dynamique récente du marché et les incertitudes du futur]

Africa's share in the world air traffic is small but growing. South Africa has been one of the engines of this recent growth. Be it for international or domestic passengers, the largest airport of the continent, Johannesburg, is located there. And at the other two summits of South Africa's "golden triangle", Cape Town and Durban airports handle significant volumes of passengers as well. Much of the growth is due to the dramatic rise of low-cost, low fare airlines, that account nowadays for two-third of the domestic passengers. Thanks to these new players, Lanseria airport has emerged as an alternative to Johannesburg in the Gauteng province. Elsewhere in the country, there is a quite developed network of secondary and medium-sized airports, among which Port Elizabeth has a significant role. The COVID-19 crisis has been a disruptive factor for the world airline industry, and this can be seen in South Africa as well, be it for its airlines or for its airports. They were virtually inactive in April and May 2020, and their current levels of traffic are just of a shadow of the recent past, with little visibility, if any, on the near future.