Hi guys, really stepping out of my comfort zone on this one! With being an SAA Voyager member I would normally only fly SA or on code-share partners. However, for this trip down to Cape Town I flew from JNB on MN (Kulula) for the first time. Another first AFAIK is that this is the first trip report to highlight HLA as an airport. Here is the trip report!

The reason for the trip was to attend the wedding a cousin in Cape Town. The group traveling down included the grooms father and step-mother, another cousin and her 5 year old son and myself. – 5 pax. With dad and step-mom being retired, they wanted to make the flights as economical as possible – so LCC it was. I live quite close to JNB but the rest live north of Johannesburg and so it was that we chose to fly MN fro HLA (Lanseria).
For those of you who don’t know HLA, it is situated roughly halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria
It is privately owned and generally is home to a lot of GA traffic – most of the international GA traffic will come into HLA. However, Kulula (MN) has scheduled daily return flights from HLA to CPT and DBN.
Again, I normally fly out of JNB so flying out of HLA was also going to be a first and as it’s probably not a station many of you may know. I will try to give as much detail as I can of the airport in this trip report.
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HLA is situated in rural country and it took about 20 mins to drive to the airport from the NWestern suburbs of Johannesburg. As our flight was departing at 06h00 we arrived at 05h15. What a difference from JNB! Parking was a breeze as was check-in. The HLA terminal building is not large at all, but even though our flight to CPT and one to DBN were checking in at the same time it was no problem.

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We passed through security in no time at all and into the smallish, but very comfortable, departure lounge. Just time for a few photographs and then our flight was called at 05h30. HLA does not have any jet bridges, so it was a short walk in the brisk early autumn air to the aircraft. As it was still fairly dark I did not take too many photos on departure, but I have airside views that I took on arrival coming back later in the report.
Our aircraft was a Boeing 737-400, ZS OAO which looks a though it is an ex-BAComair aircraft, as it sported an anonymously painted white fuselage with no markings whatsoever and blue engines. On the photograph below courtesy of the A-Net database it seems to have been in this state for a while.
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Boarding was via airstairs both forward and aft so it was completed fairly quickly. My seat was 12E – unfortunately not a window but a centre. The good news was that it was an exit row with the accompanying extra legroom.

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Doors were closed at 05h50 and immediately after the safety demo (manual), pushback occurred at 05h55. Load factor was 100% at 162 pax according to the FA that I asked. Take-off was from runway 06L and after a short taxi we performed a rolling take-off at exactly 06h00. The flight to CPT would take 1hour 50 minutes and it was smooth and uneventful the entire way. Shortly after take-off the FA’s started the BOB service – I had a large chocolate muffin and some tea. Not very nutritional, but it filled the hole. Top-of –descent was at 07h30 and we landed at 07h55 on runway 01at CPT. We parked at the gate at 08h00.

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There is currently major construction going on at CPT and we parked at the far end of the domestic terminal and were bussed to the arrivals hall where, after a short wait, we collected our luggage, collected our rental car and were soon on our way. The only gripe I have with CPT, is that with all the construction underway, the road to the drop-off and pick-up areas at the domestic terminal have been closed off and relocated to the far side of the parking garage, so it’s a fairly long walk for passengers who are being picked up or dropped off as they have to walk right through the parking garage to get to the terminal buildings or to the temporary pick-up zone.

Our return flight on Sunday 28 March was just as easy. Our flight was due to depart at 07h30 so we arrived at CPT at 06h30. I dropped off the rest of the party and then returned the rental vehicle and met them in the terminal at the check-in desk. We were allocated row
25A-E. Luckily I had been allocated 25A. We passed through a rather chaotic security area, due to a large group traveling to Mecca who were all saying goodbye to family and friends right in front of the security gates. As one of the guys at security said “ I’m waiting to see and who is traveling and who is not traveling.” Due to the construction, the departure lounge has been relocated to a large temporary building (marquee) on what used to be part of the domestic apron directly in front of and attached to, the main terminal building. It was large and very quiet.
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As we had not had anything to eat before leaving for the airport, we grabbed a quick bite to eat while waiting for the flight to be called. Boarding commenced at exactly 07h00 and as the aircraft was parked at a stand on the far side of the apron we were bussed to the aircraft. It was once again a Boeing 737-400 registration ZS-OTF this time painted in the “traditional” Kulula green and white. This photo below from the database and below that a couple taken as we were boarding.

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Boarding was once again through airstairs forward and aft. We boarded via the rear stairs and were quickly in our seats.
Cabin while boarding
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Below are a few of the aircraft parked close to us
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Once all 132 pax had been boarded, door closed that 07h20 and pushback occurred at 07h25.
These photos were shot on pushback and show some of the construction that happening at CPT and general views of the apron.
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We taxied to the runway 19 threshhold, paused for a few seconds and then roared down the runway and we left the ground at 07h31, flying in a southerly direction before turning left onto our direct course to HLA.
Take-off with Table Mountain in the distance
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Climbing out of CPT and general views on route including South Africs'a version of crop circles
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The FA’s started the BOB service soon after take –off with an announcement that due to one of the children of board having a very severe peanut allergy, no peanuts would be sold on the flight. As it turned out the child was seated in the row directly in front of me. I will admit, this is the very first time I have ever experienced this sort of “incident”. I just had some tea, took photo and dozed all the way to HLA.
Descending towards HLA
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We commenced our descent at08h05 and we touched down on runway 06L, the same runway we had departed from 2 days earlier at 08h25.
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We stopped at the gate at 08h31. We disembarked via front and rear airstairs and walked the short distance to the terminal building. This gave me the opportunity to take a few shots of the apron activity at HLA.
Our aircraft after disembarkation.
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Airside view of the HLA terminal
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Our luggage arrived very quickly and we were soon on our way home.
In summary, HLA is a great alternative to JNB if you are flying Kulula and are resident in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.
Hope you enjoy reading this first ever trip report for HLA. I hope there will be more. Thanks for reading and all comments gratefully accepted.