A promise to fix airport problems

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Following the recent downgrade of the Plettenberg Bay Airport resulting in the suspension of all commercial flights into the coastal holiday town, the Bitou Municipality has vowed to address the shortcomings that led to the decision by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).

Airline operator CemAir, which has been offering flights between Plettenberg Bay and major city centres for the past seven years, announced last week that it had to suspend all of its flights into Plett with immediate effect.

The suspension came after the airport was downgraded to below the minimum category required for flights to operate into the airport.

SACAA records showed that the reason for the suspension was the ongoing failure of the airport to address outstanding issues from inspections, some several years old.

Blame game

CemAir pointed the finger at the Bitou Municipality which, it said, had both a statutory and contractual obligation to correct the problems. Bitou Municipality in turn implicated the airline operator as responsible party.

"Some of the major findings that led to downgrading are aviation-specific and required expertise that resides with external service providers," said Bitou Municipal Manager Lonwabo Ngoqo.

"The main reason to engage the services of a commercial entity like CemAir was aimed at addressing the expertise that we do not have in-house as a municipality. Unfortunately, some of these did not materialise as expected and resulted in the downgrading. We need to state it categorically clear that CemAir as a strategic partner was also expected to play a role in assisting us to be in a position to retain the grading as largely benefitted them as the commercial partner.

"They were supposed to provide guidance and also some of the equipment that was identified in the findings."

CemAir however said it had, on numerous occasions, offered to assist with the resolution of issues, the management of the airport and provision of essential training for airport and firefighting staff. "The majority of these offers or proposals was ignored and went unanswered by the Bitou Municipality," the airline operator said in a statement.

Going forward

Ngoqo said the airport would be operating at "grade 2 status" until the municipality acquired the services of a strategic partner to develop and manage the aerodrome.

"There is a standing council resolution to go out on a 'call for proposals' process that will allow the municipality to hand over the development and management of the aerodrome to a competent private party. The procurement process for this is currently underway.

"In the interim, the municipality is taking measures including short- to medium-term interventions to address the situation. The municipality had several engagements with Wesgro, Salga, provincial government and National Treasury in 2019 and 2020 to "get in an investor that would assist in upgrading the aerodrome and bringing it to a level closer to the George Airport." This was however stalled by the outbreak of Covid-19.

Priority will be given to address the findings that led to the downgrade.

"Our engagements with SACAA were very positive, and they did give the assurance that the move is not punitive but aimed at ensuring that our commercial partners and travellers experience safe and risk-free services at the aerodrome. They are committed to working hand in hand with the Bitou Municipality to restore the situation to its normality as soon as possible."

The Plettenberg Bay Airport was originally registered on a SACAA grade 2 level, which allows private aircraft to operate from the airport. To boost tourism, the municipality later applied to have it upgraded to a grade 4 airport - allowing commercial flights to land.

Commercial flights into the Plettenberg Bay airport have been suspended.
Photo: Ewald Stander