update (14 Dec 2012):
Bloemfontein's airport has been officially renamed
Bram Fischer International Airport by President Zuma ahead of unveiling a new
Nelson Mandela statue in
Bloemfontein.
The Airport in
Bloemfontein, previously known as
Bloemfontein International Airport (IATA: BFN), has been officially renamed
Bram Fischer International Airport.
South Africa's Minister of Arts and Culture,
Paul Mashatile, approved and gazetted the renaming of the airport in the capital of the
Free State on 02 November 2012. The official launch and re-naming ceremony is planned to take place before the end of 2012.
The South African airlines
Airlink,
Mango and
South African Airways are currently the only carries operating flights to and from
Bloemfontein.
Abram "Bram" Fischer (23 April 1908 in
Bloemfontein – 8 May 1975 in
Bloemfontein), a South African of Afrikaner descent, was one of the "bravest and staunchest friends of the freedom struggle that I have ever known." (Nelson Mandela in
Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela). He was a lawyer and led, for instance, Nelson Mandela's legal defense team at the
Rivonia Trial of 1963–1964.
