South African Cape Town International Airport is ready to cope with the anticipated influx of soccer fans during next year's World Cup when Terminal 2010 - the new multi-million-rand central terminal building - opens, the Cape Argus reported on Sunday.

A mass simulation exercise with 500 participants, including airport staff, porters and dummy passengers, was held last week to test the readiness of the new terminal ahead of the opening next Saturday.

The dry run also allowed for the new baggage-sorting system to be tested. The same baggage system flopped when it was used for the first time on the opening day of Heathrow's Terminal 5 in London last year.

During a media preview yesterday, Adele Klingenberg, Cape Town infrastructure and planning manager for Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), said test runs would continue to check whether all the systems were ready when the new terminal goes live.

She said stakeholders and staff would be taken on tours next week to familiarise themselves with the new five-storey terminal. "All the systems will be tested before the terminal building is opened on November 7," said Klingenberg.

Bharat Bhika, ACSA's project manager, said the new terminal was similar to the one at OR Tambo International Airport, but with "a Cape Town touch " and "nicer".

The 1.5 billion rand (187 million U.S. dollars) terminal has 120check-in counters, 20self-service check-in machines, eight air bridges, 11 bus gates, and an automated baggage-sorting system.

The combined domestic and international terminal will boast a number of popular retail outlets and shops, a food court, and a public viewing deck from which families can watch aircraft land and take off.

On the ground floor, a few meters from the main entrance, a transport plaza - where passengers will be able to catch a bus or taxi - is being built.

It is set to be completed by March and will be connected to the city's Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) network once it is launched.

Two subways are being built on the ground floor to enable pedestrians to avoid motorists on the airport's new arrivals level. Many of the systems would be new, so teething problems were expected, said airport spokeswoman Deidre Hendricks.