Failures clip aviation's wings

Airport closures, disrupted flights costly to pockets of travellers, airlines.

- Hein Kaiser

Infrastructure failures across SA's aviation backbone airports and air traffic controlled to costly delays and safety concerns, affecting the pockets of passengers, tourists and airlines.

The Airlines Association of South Africa (Aasa) this week issued a statement detailing several infrastructure challenges that have caused delays, resulted in airport closures and disrupted flight operations.

These come at a substantial economic cost to carriers and travellers, while also casting doubt on the upholding of overall standards across infrastructure.

Chief executive of Aasa Aaron Munetsi said the recent disruptions and other impediments signal an indifference to aviation, tourism and business by the regulators and the custodians of the infrastructure, in this case the government, that are meant to be enabling, not frustrating, air connectivity.

"Air connectivity enables and propels economic activity. Any modern country that aspires to have a growing, sophisticated and competitive economy with low unemployment and improved social stability, treats aviation as a central pillar in economic planning and strategy," Munetsi said.

Aasa listed last week's power failure at Cape Town International Airport, the concomitant delays and Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) indefinite suspension of flight approaches to several airports. This after the latter missed a deadline to complete mandatory reviews and redesigns of any aircraft flight path approaches that it found to be unfit for purpose.