Kruger2Canyons.com

NELSPRUIT– The first chartered planeload of European tourists could be touching down at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) during this year.

At least that is the hope of airport manager Sisa Tanda. Negotiations are in an advanced stage with a major UK charter company to fly once a week to KMIA.



Gaining the charter airline is one of three key aims on Tanda’s business wish list for 2007. The others include enticing a low-cost airline into a long-term arrangement and increasing the amount of cargo traffic.

After doubling profitability in the past year, the seasoned Tanda is working hard to coordinate consultants, agents, route developers and operators to further the master plan for the future.

Most of the income is derived from people travelling through and using the services at the airport.

“Our short-term objectives include the development of the charter airlines business,” Tanda said. “By the end of this year we expect to have weekly charter flights and once one operator starts, it will have a snowball effect.

“We have learned through studies that the two main places in South Africa that foreign tourists want to visit during a 14-day stay, are Cape Town and the Kruger National Park. We want to make their travel arrangements as comfortable and direct as we can.

“We are slightly restricted by national requirements and bilateral aviation arrangements which means using Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport as the point of entry,” said Tanda. He is also cognisant of the desire of domestic fliers to have more choice of internal operators– especially a no-frills, low-price airline.

The third arrow in Tanda’s quiver is reserved for the cargo market, which he sees as a key economic growth factor for the region’s future and long-term development of the airport.

Labels: airlines, mpumalanga, nelspruit, southern kruger, travel

Bovine tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease among buffalo in the Kruger National Park, has increased in the park's southern and central regions over the past six years.

A census in 1998 found that the southern region had the highest infection rate at 38% of buffalo tested for the disease, but this has since gone up to 43%. The increase is even higher in the central region, where it has increased from 16% to 25%. In the Satara area, 10% of healthy animals are infected annually.

American scientists are now helping to research the spread of the disease. The project is funded by the United States National Science Foundation and started in 2001.

Scientists from both the University of Berkeley in California and the University of Pretoria are working with Park officials to track the infected buffalo.

The Kruger project was chosen because buffalo move freely over a wide geographical area, but are still within a controlled area.

Between 80 and 90 buffalo in the central region of the park have been fitted with radio collars and have been found to move as far north as Punda Maria, while some have been spotted in the neighbouring Manyeleti and Klaserie Game Reserves.

Evidence suggests that bovine TB entered Kruger in the early 60s when there were outbreaks in the cattle population along the southern border of the Park.

Buffalo are not the only species that can be infected with bovine TB. Since 1990 it has also been found in lions, leopards, cheetahs, kudus and chacma baboons in the park.

In Buffalo and grazers, the disease is spread through breathing, sneezing and saliva, while predators get it by eating infected animals.

Kruger Park Times

Labels: central kruger, disease, klaserie, manyeleti, punda maria, southern kruger, tuberculosis