Lanseria International Airport | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Private | ||||||||||
Owner | Consortium | ||||||||||
Serves | Johannesburg | ||||||||||
Location | Johannesburg | ||||||||||
Hub for | |||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 4,520 ft / 1,377 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 25°56′19″S 027°55′34″E / 25.93861°S 27.92611°ECoordinates: 25°56′19″S 027°55′34″E / 25.93861°S 27.92611°E | ||||||||||
Website | www |
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Map | |||||||||||
Location in Greater Johannesburg | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Lanseria International Airport (IATA: HLA, ICAO: FALA) is a privately owned international airport that is situated north of Randburg and Sandton to the north west of Johannesburg, South Africa. The airport can handle aircraft up to the size of the Boeing 757-300.
Lanseria Airport started out as a grass strip airfield in 1972, the brainchild of two Pretoria pilots – Fanie Haacke and Abe Sher. The land was originally bought by Krugersdorp and Roodepoort Municipality together with the Transvaal Peri-Urban Board and contracted to Lanseria Management Company on a 99-year lease since 1972.
The airport was officially opened by the Minister of Transport at the time, Hannes Rall, on 16 August 1974. Soon after its opening, Lanseria Airport hosted the Air Africa '75 (in 1975).
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 he was flown to Johannesburg landing at Lanseria Airport.
On 15 November 2012 the airport was sold to a consortium consisting of Harith, an infrastructure development fund management company; the women's empowerment company Nozala; and the Government Employee Pension Fund, through the Public Investment Corporation.
On 11 November 2013 the airport opened its new 45-meter-wide 07/25 Runway and also closing the existing 30-meter-wide 06/24 runway. Kulula was the first carrier to land on the new runway.
Runway 07 is equipped with ILS CAT I, and despite the name, is directed at 047° East of North. The single runway has a 1.5% gradient, sloping up towards the South-West end of the runway; despite this gradient, the preferred landing direction is from the South, landing on Runway 07. This is primarily because winds of the Highveld of South Africa are usually Northerly winds, blowing South.
National Airways has its head office building on the airport property.