The King Shaka International Airport at La Mercy will be operational in 2010’s first quarter, when the current facility, Durban International Airport, will be decommissioned.

The timing means the airport should be ready six months before the 2010 Fifa World Cup, when 50000 soccer fans are expected to arrive in the province.

KwaZuluNatal premier Sbu Ndebele said yesterday that the Airports Company SA (Acsa) had agreed on time frames to relocate the existing airport.

As a result, the R2,5bn airport and associated Dube Tradeport project had entered implementation phase, the premier said.

The airport project at La Mercy, north of Durban, has been on the drawing board for more than 40 years.

Finance and economic development MEC Zweli Mkhize said the Dube Tradeport would provide an agricultural processing zone and air cargo terminal facilities for exporters and importers. The airport could create 165000-260000 jobs over 20 years.

Ndebele said the agreement between Acsa and the Dube Tradeport was that Acsa would own, pay for and operate the new airport. Dube Tradeport, owned by the province, would own and operate the cargo terminal, trade zone and AgriZone activities.

Acsa and Dube Tradeport will develop the remaining property through a joint venture firm.

Construction will start by March next year.

The successful bid for the construction tender between the Grinaker and LTA-led Indiza consortium, and the Group Five and Wilson Bayly Holmes-led Illembe consortium, is expected to be announced by the end of the year.

Ndebele is confident all issues in the environmental impact assessment can be managed and measures can be put into place to address them.

A second round of public consultations in the impact assessment started this week.

The province will spend about R700m on the Dube Tradeport over the construction period. The agreement with Acsa means the province will benefit from an infrastructure investment of R2,5bn funded by Acsa, which will reduce KwaZulu-Natal’s expenditure.