Suren Naidoo
The newly married Charlene Wittstock and her husband, Prince Albert II of Monaco, will fly in to King Shaka airport on one of more than a dozen private jets bringing royalty, presidents and business heavyweights to the 123rd International Olympic Committee session taking place in Durban next week.
Sam Ramsamy, IOC executive member and chairman of the organising committee, said yesterday that he was confident in the Airports Company of South Africa’s comprehensive preparations to deal with the private jets and influx of more than 2 000 delegates for the meeting.
He said he could not disclose who would arrive on private jets because of security and protocols.
However, bid delegations from Germany and South Korea would fly in on special charter flights.
The Bavarian city of Munich and South Korea’s PyeongChang are in the race to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games with Annecy, France.
The announcement of the winning city would be made at the IOC session on Wednesday, Ramsamy said.
The South Korean and German presidents would jet in to Durban to support their countries’ bids.
Other royals expected to attend include Britain’s Princess Anne, the Prince of Orange and Arab royalty.
IOC member and Fifa president Sepp Blatter is also expected to attend, together with other global sports administrators.
PyeongChang bid spokesman Muchol Shin said a flight would land at the airport tonight with about 250 bid officials, media representatives and supporters.
Munich bid spokeswoman Simone Seefried said a special flight would land in Durban on Tuesday, with about 150 bid officials and supporters.
King Shaka assistant general manager Bongiwe Pityi said the Acsa team was “pulling out all stops” to ensure the IOC delegates, heads of state, VIPs and regular passengers were properly dealt with at the airport.
Pityi said the airport’s operational hours would increase to 24 hours for the period, and about 13 private aircraft were expected.
“We have an appreciation of how symbolic this event is to the country…
“The lessons we took from the unfortunate incident on July 7, 2010 (during the World Cup) have been put into action,” said Pityi.