Wonderboom Airport Wonderboom Lughawe | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Wonderboom, Pretoria, South Africa | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,248 m / 4,095 ft | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 25°39′13″S28°13′27″E / 25.65361°S 28.22417°E | ||||||||||||||
| Website | wonderboomairport | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
  PRY Location of Airport in Gauteng | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Wonderboom Airport( IATA : PRY, ICAO : FAWB) is located north of Sinoville in the northern suburbs of Pretoria, South Africa.
 | This section needs to be updated.(July 2018) |
The airport was opened in 1937, being built on the farm Wonderboom approximately 15 km north of Pretoria. Originally a civilian airstrip for light aircraft, it was used for military training purposes during the Second World War before returning to civilian control in 1945. The airport remains a light aircraft facility to this day.
In 1965, the airport was extensively expanded, with a new terminal building and hangars being constructed as well as the runways being extended. This led to Wonderboom Airport being able to receive its first Boeing 737 in 1982. In 1993, runway 11/29 was again upgraded to its present length of 1,828 m.
Airport management passed to the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council in December 1994. Towards the end of 2000, ownership passed to Pretoria.[ clarification needed ]
In 2007, plans were mooted by the city of Pretoria for scheduled passenger service from Wonderboom Airport. The municipality spent R165.5 million in order to upgrade the airport in anticipation of passenger flights. [1] In July 2009, it was announced that scheduled passenger service to Cape Town and Durban was due to commence in October 2009.
The airport would initially be able to cope with 450 departing and 400 incoming passengers per hour. It is believed that there is a market for passenger service, mainly Pretoria residents that do not wish to commute to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg; an estimated 25%-30% of passengers using O.R. Tambo are Pretoria residents.
O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport serving the twin cities of Johannesburg and the main capital of South Africa, Pretoria. It is situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel for South Africa and since 2020, it is Africa's second busiest airport, with a capacity to handle up to 28 million passengers annually. The airport serves as the hub for South African Airways. The airport handled over 21 million passengers in 2017.
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Durban International Airport was the international airport of Durban from 1951 until 2010, when it was replaced by King Shaka International Airport, 60 kilometres (37 mi) to the north. The airport is co-located with AFB Durban.
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Airlink, is an airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its main business is to provide services between smaller, under-served towns and larger hub airports. It has since expanded to offer flights on larger, mainline routes. The airline has a network of more than 60 routes to over 45 destinations in Southern Africa. In January 2021, it became the second-largest carrier within Africa by number of flights, and third-largest by number of seats.
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This is a list of aviation-related events from 2009.
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South African Airlink Flight 8911 was a positioning flight from Durban International Airport to Pietermaritzburg Airport, South Africa, that crashed into the grounds of Merebank Secondary School, Durban shortly after take-off on 24 September 2009, injuring the three occupants of the aircraft and one on the ground. The captain of the flight subsequently died of his injuries on 7 October 2009.
On December 27, 1968, North Central Airlines Flight 458 crashed into a hangar while attempting a night landing in poor weather at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Of the 41 passengers and four crew members, only 17 passengers and one crew member survived. One person was killed and six were injured on the ground.
On December 20, 1972, North Central Airlines Flight 575 and Delta Air Lines Flight 954 collided on a runway at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Ten people died – all on the North Central aircraft – and 17 were injured in the accident. This was the second major airliner accident to happen in Chicago in December 1972; the other was United Airlines Flight 553, which crashed twelve days earlier on approach to Midway Airport.
On 10 July 2018, a Convair 340 owned by Dutch aviation museum Aviodrome crashed during a trial flight in Pretoria, South Africa. The aircraft suffered an engine fire moments after takeoff and crashed into a factory building as the crew attempted to return it to Wonderboom Airport.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
Media related to Wonderboom Airport at Wikimedia Commons
