The Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) has called on the leadership of the Air Traffic Navigation Service (ATNS) “to strengthen their collaboration with airlines to determine effective solutions for addressing ongoing challenges related to unavailable instrument flight procedures (IFPs).”
In a statement by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Aaron Munetsi, AASA noted that “These disruptions, delays, diversions, and flight cancellations—and their effects on customers, airlines, and entire economies—are far more than a mere inconvenience; they are deeply damaging and simply unacceptable.”
The airline association noted that the country was “dealing with an operational crisis, now in its 16th month and with no clear end in sight. This threatens the economic viability of several towns and cities and South Africa’s ability to be a dependable, efficient and competitive trading partner and destination for tourism and investment”
AASA further said that the “crisis requires a commensurate response with intervention from Cabinet ministers whose portfolios cover entire sectors of the economy that depend on reliable and safe air connectivity.”
Impact of suspended Instrument Flight Procedures
While highlining the impact of the suspended IFP procedures, AASA said “For affected airports where IFPs have been suspended this means take-offs and landings are not permitted when there is mist, low cloud, fog or dense smoke obstructing pilots’ visibility.”
AASA continued: “Flight schedule disruptions are financial hammer blows to airlines. Customers lose confidence resulting in lost sales, ticket cancellations and refunds. Simultaneously, airlines are saddled with additional costs for taking care of affected passengers, animals in transit, additional fuel, landing, parking and ground handling for diverted flights, additional crew and accelerated maintenance of aircraft and engines due to the unplanned additional flight hours they incur. Airlines also have to pay ATNS for the extra en-route navigation and air traffic control charges associated with any diversions.”
These suspensions also have serious harmful economic ramifications for businesses, industry, trade, essential and emergency services as well as peoples’ livelihoods not only in cities such as Kimberley, George, Polokwane, Upington, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg, Mthatha and Richards Bay, but also in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha, which are key economic hubs.
AASA concluded with a call on ATNS and the Department of Transport to “eliminate and prevent these kinds of disruptions and deliver on their mandate of enabling safe, reliable, efficient and accessible passenger and cargo air transport.”
ATNS on its part while adducing reasons for the disruptions has apologized for the challenges with the IFPs. The Acting CEO, Matome Moholola was quoted by Engineering News to have said: “We take this opportunity to express our unconditional apology to the broader public, including our customers, for the inconvenience that resulted from our recent operational challenges.”
Moholola continued “We are fully aware that we are not out of the woods yet, and we will not put our foot off the pedal, but it is important that we take a moment and pause and reflect on the progress and acknowledge the tremendous work done by our employees”.