The previous international airport, south of Durban, was opened in 1951 and was known as the Louis Botha airport. After the 1994 democratic elections, it was renamed to Durban International Airport. Due to (amongst others) a relative short runway, the airport lost a lot of its international traffic. Construction work for the new airport started in September 2007. It was opened a month before the start of the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010.
The terminal buildings are modern and impressive. All the major domestic airlines offer daily scheduled flights to Durban. Emirates and Air Mauritius are amongst the international scheduled flights.
During 2013, Skytrax acknowledged King Shaka International as the best airport worldwide for airports with less than 5 million passengers per year.
On the Saturday that we visited the airport, it was quiet and the only international flight was due at 17:30 from Dubai. Although it was early November, the terminal buildings were already full of Christmas decorations.
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| Entrance off the N2 to King Shaka International |
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| A bull at the Shark's airport ? |
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| Christmas time is showing in the terminal building |