Cape Town Airport

Two FlyNovus aircraft at Cape Town in March 2020

Cape Town Airport is an airport on Nova. It was the main hub for FlyNovus, before closing to civilian flights on November 20, 2019. It opened to civilian flights again on February 23, 2020.

## History

After many failed attempts to find a suitable airport hub for FlyNovus, including places in Europe and Africa, Airplaneguy9 joined the town of Cape Town, Nova America, and found the land south of the town had good space. Construction on a new airport started on 5 October 2019.

The airport would have been built in three stages:

* Phase 1: with runway 09/27 and a small temporary terminal with an apron and parking space. This phase was completed on 20 October 2019, and is the current airport.
* Phase 2: this would have extended runway 09/27, and construction on runway 19/36 will start. A new larger international and domestic passenger terminal would have begun construction, and the temporary terminal would have been converted into a hangar.
* Phase 3: More hangars, a cargo area, an underground baggage handling system, some extensions, airport exterior lighting, decoration and other facilities would have been constructed.

On 14 October, ownership of the airport passed from the NAA to the State of South Africa, which controlled part of the construction of the airport. The NAA handled most of the terminal facilities.

The airport runway was finished on 20 October, and a road and terminal were finished the same day. Its scheduled opening was set for the 25th. The same day, the terminal was expanded greatly, and the taxiways completed by SteveGoldberg, the town mayor. Runway lights were installed, the roads were finished and all that remained was to test the airport, however, there were some setbacks to the testing (see Accidents and Incidents below).

On the 21st, a new expansion plan was offered by well-known player OctaPokta. The new design featured new hangars, runways, taxiways, and facilities.

The airport was opened on October 26, in a big ceremony. Attending were the Mayor of Pyongyang, Crete, Los Angeles, and, as the pilot for the first flight, the Shogun of Japan. The first flight out of the airport was FlyNovus flight 102 to Mafeteng.

Following war from Nova America, the airport was closed on November 19, and opened again on November 22 so FlyNovus aircraft could fly from the airport to nearby Port Elizabeth. The aircraft then flew to Dubai, where they are currently stored, and the airport was converted into an airbase, for military aircraft.

On November 29, the airbase was forcefully passed into the operation of the Texan military, due to the Nova American War. For months, Texas operated the airport, before it was reverted back a civilian terminal on February 23, 2020. Ironically, the first flight to land was a FlyNovus flight from Windau.

## Facilities

The current building contains 2 gates and a waiting area, and is known to be one of the best designed airport buildings on Nova. It would be converted into a military hangar, but it never happened

The future terminal would have boasted a large shopping mall, a check in hall, lots of lounges, restaurants, and viewing areas.

## Accidents and incidents

* On 19 October 2019, Emirates aircraft RI-EKA, operating flight EK04, crashed off the coast of Cape Town shortly after departure. All passengers survived, and the aircraft was later recovered.
* Just a day later, on 20 October, the governmental aircraft (N-CRES) carrying the mayor of Crete en route to Cape Town to test the new runway ran out of fuel and crashed in the Sahara Desert. There were no survivors.

## Transport

The airbase is accessible via the new N1 highway to Port Elizabeth. To enter the airside, visitors need to pay a fee of $100. The airport offers free entry towards registered Texan military units.

## Trivia

* This wiki page is the 100th Datearth wiki page
* FlyNovus' headquarters gave one of the greatest views of the airport, and is good for planespotting with a render distance of over 6 chunks. This is reminiscent of GIA's Boston headquarters.
* Its Gaia equivalent is Kaapstad Airport.
* The airport plan was a very early version of what would have been Phase 2.