As part of efforts to avoid further flight disruptions at Mthatha and King Phalo airports, the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) will continue with its biweekly meetings chaired by transport minister Barbara Creecy, as the aviation industry comes up with a strategy to modernise airport systems that have not been maintained for years across the country.
This comes as the navigation utility submitted new instrumental flight procedures for the second runways at the King Phalo and Mthatha airports.
This, according to national transport spokesperson Collen Msibi, will form part of the turnaround strategy, which is being monitored until the situation has improved countrywide.
On Thursday, ATNS announced that instrumental flight procedures for runway 11 at King Phalo Airport in East London had been approved, and the suspension was lifted.
They were also lifted for Mthatha airport’s runway 14.
However, according to the ministry, additional flight procedures applications for the East London and Mthatha airports’ second runways still needed approvals by the SA Civil Aviation Authority after they were submitted by the ATNS on Friday.
Some of the new instrument flight procedures submitted were for George airport’s second runway 11, additional instrument flight procedures at King Phalo, instrument landing systems for Lanseria international airport runway seven and Mthatha airport’s second runway 32.
This, according to ATNS spokesperson Mphilo Dlamini, will ensure both runways are fully equipped for safe landing, even in cloudy or misty weather conditions.
“At King Phalo, we have two runways. One was fine.
“The reason an airport has two runways is sometimes the wind requires that we use another runway.
“Unfortunately, the runway that was favoured by the wind, runway 11, did not have the procedural instruments, they were switched off.
“When the weather is bad, pilots can’t see and rely on the instrument to guide them.
“Now there will be flights in Mthatha, even if the weather is bad, because the instruments have been turned on,” he said.
Dlamini admitted the reason for the disruptions were due to a lack of maintenance.
“We are doing this maintenance programme all over the country.
“There was no maintenance for a long time and now we find that we have to do this maintenance all over [the country] at the same time.
“Maintenance is done generally every five years, that’s how the system works.
“These systems operate with a lot of technology that changes from time to time.
“The new generation of aircraft that are made today, you may find that when they fly to King Phalo or OR Tambo, their systems don’t talk to the procedures deployed at the airport.
“So we need update the system to be compatible with the new generation of aircraft.” he said.
The biweekly meetings are attended by the Board of Airline Representatives of SA, Airports and Aerodrome Association of Southern Africa, Airline Association of Southern Africa, Lanseria international airport, International Air Transport Association, ATNS and Airports Company SA.
Creecy again pleaded for patience as ATNS continued with its plans.
In July, the ATNS announced the indefinite suspension of instrument-navigation flight approaches to smaller airports due to a compliance review of their infrastructure and procedures.
Due to this, more than 2,000 flights experienced delays of between 30 minutes to two hours.
Between September and October, cancellations at the King Phalo Airport, which predominantly services business travellers, led to severe financial losses and, even more concerning, cast future travel plans into doubt.
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