Down, down and away

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS – Plettenberg Bay's economy was dealt a massive blow on Tuesday 10 August when its airport was downgraded by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa), resulting in the suspension of all commercial flights.

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

Failure to address issues

"This affects both the Johannesburg and the Cape Town services.

The suspension results from the downgrading of Plettenberg Bay Airport to below the minimum category required for our flights to operate into the airport," CemAir said in a statement yesterday.

It said according to the records, the reason for the downgrade was the ongoing failure of the airport to address outstanding issues from Sacaa inspections, some several years old.

"Although written undertakings with specified time frames were provided to the Sacaa to address shortcomings, these undertakings were not met.

"Bitou Municipality had both a statutory and contractual obligation to correct the issues, however has not done so, and at the time of writing has made no commitment to address the issues," the statement read.

"It is unclear why the Sacaa's decision, although based on long outstanding issues, was made with almost no notice."

CemAir's first flight from the Plettenberg Bay Airport during the airline's local launch in 2014.

Assistance offers ignored

CemAir further said the airline operator 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."

Municipal spokesperson Andile Namntu said that the municipality was aware of the downgraded status.

"The main reasons cited are noncompliance with Sacaa standards and regulations," he said.

"We are aware that this will hurt the tourism sector as well as the economy of the town since commercial flights will not be able to land in Plettenberg Bay until these non-compliances are resolved."

He said the municipality would release a more detailed statement in due course.

CemAir's first flight from the Plettenberg Bay Airport during the airline's local launch in 2014.

Flights from George

CemAir announced that passengers with tickets already booked on their Plettenberg Bay service would be accommodated on its flights from the George Airport.

"In addition, we will be introducing a George to Cape Town service to accommodate customers on this routing.

"We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause our customers.

"Unfortunately, as an airline we rely on the infrastructure of the country in order for us to provide our service. When this infrastructure is not maintained, government needs to be held accountable."

At the time of going to print, comment from George Airport had not reached KPH.

CemAir's service to Plettenberg Bay was launched in 2014 and had operated several thousand flights into the airport, carrying more than 90 000 passengers over the seven years.