Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Business Maverick

Business Maverick, South Africa

SA airports grapple with fuel shortages, system failures and constant delays

SA airports grapple with fuel shortages, system failures and constant delays
Lisakanya Venna
By Lisakanya Venna
26 Jan 2025
Facebook
1
South Africa faces an ongoing aviation crisis, leaving many travellers disappointed.

Cape Town International Airport was thrown into chaos on Thursday, 22 January after a “damaged power cable” crippled critical operations, including the fuel depot.

The resulting power outages sparked a wave of flight delays and cancellations, with FlySafair citing fuel pump issues as a major contributor.

Read more: Airports in crisis: South Africa faces jet fuel shortages amid rising travel chaos

This incident, one of many, has sparked concern over the deteriorating state of South African airline operations and the reliability of their systems, with fears of a deeper crisis in the country’s aviation sector.

Broader pattern

 

The disruptions at Cape Town International Airport are part of a broader pattern of concerns over the reliability of South Africa's aviation infrastructure. Meanwhile, concerns are mounting about the fuel supply at OR Tambo International Airport. Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) confirmed on Sunday, 19 January that industry stakeholders were collaborating to ensure a continued jet fuel supply to OR Tambo International Airport following a fire at the Natref refinery on 4 January 2025.

Currently, OR Tambo has 27.1 million litres of jet fuel, which is about 7.6 days of stock. To meet the daily consumption of 3.6 million litres, stakeholders, including the Fuels Industry Association of Southern Africa, Natref and government agencies, are working together to secure 97.2 million litres of jet fuel for February.

Speaking to Eyewitness News, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said, “Government-owned PetroSA, which is actually supplying jet fuel, was never given access to major airports. It is only supplying jet fuel to two small airports, that is East London and George. It’s easy to point fingers, but if you don’t create an enabling space for parties to play, you’ll see that when there’s a crisis. So the fact that PetroSA is not allowed to bring jet fuel to major airports should not be made an excuse when there’s a crisis.”

OR Tambo International Airport has also faced its own set of challenges recently. In December, long immigration queues were reported due to an “unresponsive Biometric Movement Control System”, caused by a technical glitch.

Compounding these issues, a system failure occurred on 9 December 2024, affecting airline operations. This failure affected a network of 483 flights and 49,429 passengers, resulting in the cancellation of 31 flights.

Read more: More OR Tambo Airport woes: Passengers advised to arrive early amid peak travel season glitch

Call to action


In response to the growing concern over the deteriorating state of major South African airports, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has announced that it will request an urgent parliamentary transport committee hearing, calling on Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy and Acsa senior management to report on the scope of the crisis and the plans to address it.

The DA said, “It is unacceptable that flights are being grounded at South African airports due to failures by entities within the Department of Transport. It simply cannot continue.”

“This week, flights were delayed and diverted at Cape Town International Airport due to a fuel pump failure under the management of Airports Company South Africa. Earlier this month, alarming reports revealed that Acsa has fuel supply at OR Tambo International Airport only until the end of January 2025, raising grave concerns about operational stability in February.”

‘Instability’


The DA said that Creecy’s efforts to address the aviation sector’s challenges had been insufficient and that a more fundamental overhaul was now necessary to prevent further disruptions. 

“The instability at our airports undermines business confidence and it cannot continue. Last year, during critical peak tourist season, repeated failures by Air Traffic Navigation Services disrupted flights and cost South Africa much-needed tourism revenue.”

“We cannot allow this pattern of incompetence to hamstring our economy further. Every grounded plane represents lost revenue, weakened investor confidence, and damage to South Africa’s global reputation,” the party said. 

FlySafair efforts fall short for some


Responding to the disruptions and flight cancellations caused by the power failure at Cape Town International Airport, FlySafair released a statement announcing additional flights to accommodate those affected by previous cancellations.

But despite these efforts, some passengers, including author and publisher Melinda Ferguson, faced significant challenges. Ferguson was invited to facilitate a writing retreat at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha. She was scheduled to fly back to Cape Town on Wednesday, 22 January at 6:15 pm, but did not receive any notification from FlySafair about the flight’s status.

Ferguson had checked in online and was tracking updates on the FlySafair app, which showed that the plane was still on track, even sending notifications such as “boarding is closing”, a stark contrast to the reality she faced when she arrived at the airport.

‘Complete chaos’


Ferguson approached the check-in desk to change her seat, but was told to go to the FlySafair desk. There she was informed that “the Cape Town airport was closed due to a fuel shortage.” Ferguson described the scene as “complete chaos” at the PE Airport, with a long queue and what seemed to be an inexperienced staff member assisting passengers. When she asked to be booked on another flight, the staff member told her to check her SMS for a link to rebook.

However, Ferguson said the link didn’t work. Her requests for alternative arrangements, including a refund or a simple bottle of water, were met with a “no”. Despite the chaos, Ferguson was fortunate to have the retreat organiser arrange for her accommodation and transportation.

However, she expressed concern for other travellers who were not as fortunate and stated, “I just felt that the communication was so badly handled by FlySafair, who claim to be the most on-time airline in the world at times."

Read more: Airports in crisis: South Africa faces jet fuel shortages amid rising travel chaos
Linden Birns, managing director of aviation industry consultancy, Plane Talking says effective crisis communication requires an acknowledgement of a crisis and reliable situational awareness.


However, he added that there are two big challenges. "First is overcoming, or shortening, the latency that always exists, i.e. the time it takes from being made aware that something has happened, developing a clear understanding of what actually happened ... getting organised and delivering your response, including communicating with the various affected and interested people and entities," he said.


Birns pointed out that any piece of equipment or system is prone to failure and any organisation’s ongoing risk assessment should take this into account. "We can anticipate that things might go pear-shaped and plan for such eventualities, (although it is impossible to plan for every potential eventuality).

Advances in media and technology have compressed what people regard as acceptable time for service-focused organisations (in the public and private sectors) to acknowledge a crisis and to provide accurate information they can rely on and use," he said.


Birns also pointed out "the air transport sector comprises many moving parts that airlines rely on, but do not control, e.g. airlines are not responsible for airport refuelling equipment and infrastructure. Neither do they oversee airspace management and most often, they rely on ground handling service providers for ground operations. So when a failure occurs in any of those domains, airlines depend on the relevant service provider or agency to deliver prompt and accurate alerts and subsequent situation reports."


The second challenge is alerting customers. "Most airlines have systems in place for promptly contacting customers, most commonly by personal message, such as an SMS or Whatsapp. But to be effective, these require customers to provide their mobile phone contact numbers. Customers who book through travel agents or a corporate travel department should ensure that their mobile numbers are captured and reflected in the reservation and not just the contact number of the agent making the booking on their behalf."


Birns said although airline apps are becoming increasingly powerful and capable of multiple functions, those that offer more than just an online booking and check-in portal, tend to be confined to major international airlines. DM

Categories:

Tags: