OR Tambo airport

Friends and family seem to have been travelling around an awful lot during the past few months, so I've found myself at OR Tambo airport (what used to be called Johannesburg International) on what seems like a weekly basis. Apart from one surreal experience where I parked in newly opened and unsignposted parking and got so lost trying to find the terminal buildings that I joined a disconsolate band of fellow travellers on the same quest to find my way out, I am pretty impressed with the developments at the airport. (We were forced to ask one of the people directing traffic with those giant hands that people wear at cricket matches before we found our way out of the parking and into the terminal buildings, and I had resort to this again to find my car.)

OR Tambo airport now boasts new international arrivals terminals, a host of new shops, new information and help points, and more and more parking is being built. Parking has long been a problem at this busy airport; much more is now available, and event more is being built. Lights have been installed above each existing parking bay, red indicating that the bay is already taken, and green that it is free; blue is for disabled parking. The nightmare of finding parking here is now slowly receding.






Most impressive and exciting are the first signs of the long awaited Gautrain, a rapid transport rail system, one branch of which is to run from Sandton to OR Tambo. You can't miss the giant concrete pillars as you approach the airport on the highway, or as you enter the international section of the airport. Apparently once the train is running, you will be able to check in your luggage at Sandton station, and travel to the airport unencumbered with bags, and then retrieve your luggage at your final international destination. Sounds a bit too good to be true; but I love the idea.

Labels: Gautrain, Johannesburg airport, OR Tambo, OR Tambo airport

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