The airport handles between 20 and 30 flights daily, which bring 946,000 people to East London each year.

The airport had an inauspicious beginning in 1927, when Lieut Colonel Alistair Miller asked the East London town council to help establish a municipal aerodrome at Woodbrook, west of the city.

Passenger flights were undertaken by two de Havilland Moth planes on Saturday afternoons and all day on Sundays, weather permitting.

Construction of the terminal buildings finished in 1966, and the airport was named after Ben Schoeman, the minister of transport at the time.

Since then, major alterations to the terminal building have been completed and a new first-floor office development for the airport management team has been added.