Johannesburg - The OR Tambo International Airport will from 1 April start to multi-use terminals in order to process international and domestic flights interchangeably.
According to the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), the international and domestic terminals will be replaced by Terminal A and Terminal B.
"Terminal A will extend from the Central Terminal Building (CTB) atrium to what was previously known as the international terminal, while Terminal B will extend to what was previously known as the domestic terminal," ACSA said.
According to ACSA, passengers will benefit by this decision, because from now on, all they need to know is from which terminal the airline they are flying with, will be operating from.
Passengers can obtain this information at the time of booking their tickets. To assist them, the airport will also be putting up temporary signs that show which airlines operate out of each departure terminal.
"The benefit of making the terminals multi-use will allow the airport to be more efficient in the use of existing infrastructure, thus minimising the dependence on more construction of new buildings to create capacity," ACSA said.
However, ACSA said the check-in counters in the existing international departures hall will continue to be used for international flights only.
The multi-use CTB departures facility will be used by both international and domestic airlines allowing those airlines with domestic and international flights to use the same check-in counters.
At the beginning of April, when the new multi-use departures hall in Terminal B opens in the CTB some airlines serving international routes will move into the new facility.
"Among them are South African Airways which will process both international and domestic passengers from the new facility," ACSA said.
Other airlines that will also be moving to the new facility include Express and Airlink (which like SAA will process both international and domestic passengers from their counters); UM - Air Zimbabwe; MD - Air Madagascar; WB - Rwandair Express; TC - Air Tanzania; QF - Qantas;CX - Cathay Pacific; MS - Egypt Air; and MK - Air Mauritius
