Roxette fume over queue at OR Tambo

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a-person

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2012/06/11/roxette-fume-over-or-delay

SWEDISH pop duo Roxette have described Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport as a possible No1 on the list of the world's worst airports.

Venting on their Facebook page, Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle updated on Saturday night: "Just spent 90 minutes at one of the world's worst airports, Johannesburg. Could actually be the No1 on that scary list ... Good God, how about some organisation with customs etc?"

Within two hours of the posting, 255 Facebook users liked the comment and more than 50 South Africans subscribed to the page agreed. Some described the airport as a "horror", blaming the government for not improving service delivery.

Their comments were met with anger by other South Africans and international fans, who said a 90-minute wait was "not so long". They described standing in long queues at British and US airports.

The duo, who performed last week in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town as part of their world tour, stepped into the debate: "We love South Africa. You know that! But someone should fix the logistix at Joburg Airport."

Airports Company of SA's spokesman at OR Tambo, Unathi Batyashe-Fillis, said security surveillance footage showed that there were long queues at the emigration checkpoint when Roxette were leaving.

But, he said the airport had not established why.

"Emigration [and immigration] services are provided by the Department of Home Affairs and, though Airports Company SA provides the infrastructure, we are not able to answer questions regarding problems at emigration," she said.

Batyashe-Fillis said the airport's customer-care division was not told of Roxette's departure and ground staff, appointed to assist celebrities, were not on hand.

"OR Tambo International Airport, as the hub airport of South Africa, receives a substantial number of high-profile individuals."

She said that, since the 2009 launch of the Airport Management Centre, on-time departure performance had improved from 76% to 88%.

"The airport's overall departure punctuality yesterday [Saturday] was above 86%."

Long queues and delayed departures were thrust into the international spotlight last month when the head of the UK Border Force, Brian Moore, had to explain to British MPs why queues at Heathrow International Airport's passport control section were so long.

The airport service quality passenger surveys by Airports Council International showed that OR Tambo International's score rose from a satisfactory rating of 3.6 in 2008 to an excellent 4 last year.
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I don't know why I'm annoyed by Roxette in this article. I'm sure we've all experienced a wait in a queue... but Heathrow is even worse than OR Tambo if you don't have a European passport. Maybe their concert did not sell a lot of tickets?

3 hour queues at Heathrow:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/comment/comment/continuing-chaos-at-heathrow-must-end-7697081.html
 
Airports Company of SA's spokesman at OR Tambo, Unathi Batyashe-Fillis, said security surveillance footage showed that there were long queues at the emigration checkpoint when Roxette were leaving.
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Lot's of people leaving SA these days.
 
lucifir said:
never found a real long line when leaving .. maybe just a bad day
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Yup, when leaving its not too bad. When you come back - thats another story. Loooog lines!
 
a-person said:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2012/06/11/roxette-fume-over-or-delay






I don't know why I'm annoyed by Roxette in this article. I'm sure we've all experienced a wait in a queue... but Heathrow is even worse than OR Tambo if you don't have a European passport. Maybe their concert did not sell a lot of tickets?

3 hour queues at Heathrow:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/comment/comment/continuing-chaos-at-heathrow-must-end-7697081.html
Click to expand...
Heathrow arrivals can be pretty bad there if you're not carrying the right passport . . . actually it can be bad regardless of the passport you're carrying but this incident would seem to have taken place at the emigration checkpoint.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Maybe they weren't Dressed For Success.
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bwhahahaha...oh no...that was funny. We were actually talking about this in the car on Saturday. It seems Roxette is milking this country for all its worth. Jeezz...I think they have been here like 4 times now already since last year. Best part is my house mates goes and sees them everytime. Roxette should just retire now. The new songs they have brought out really sucks if you ask me. But...to each his own I guess.
 
Our airport officials are useless I once left the country on my sons passport, we both have the same initials, but obviously our pictures are different, but they still let me through. He was stopped though in the other line, lol.

They quickly checked him through, when they realised their f-up, I think the staff didnt want to make a big fuss, cos they wouldve landed up in huge K@K.

We have porous borders!
 
"Batyashe-Fillis said the airport's customer-care division was not told of Roxette's departure and ground staff, appointed to assist celebrities, were not on hand."

Surely this is the issue - they had to stand in line with the plebs....
 
Chunkyfeather said:
Our airport officials are useless I once left the country on my sons passport, we both have the same initials, but obviously our pictures are different, but they still let me through. He was stopped though in the other line, lol.

They quickly checked him through, when they realised their f-up, I think the staff didnt want to make a big fuss, cos they wouldve landed up in huge K@K.

We have porous borders!
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It took only one incident to inspire you to brush stroke every hard working airport official in Cape Town, JHB and Durban. It's people like you that we don't need in SA. Find one fault in a fairly working system and the whole thing is a mess. I don't know who's worst... you or Roxette!

Problem is with these so called celebs is that they expect to be treated differently from anybody else when they are in 'Africa' ... To think that I once liked them.... It must have been love but it's over now...
 
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Worst Airport Lines I ever had was at Bombay in India... about three hours to go through customs and immigration. :(
 
I can under stand their frustration, in March I needed to go to the states for a week, and around 6pm or so after checking in we proceeded to emigration, the line actually started going back behind the security checkpoint, there were 2 people on duty at the immigration counters, and not a sole to be seen coming to help, I even called the number they have above two of the terminals and it just rang, eventually some people had to start jumping the line to make their flights on time, to be honest the wait wasn't the bad thing, its just the fact that security and officials can see there is an issue and that more staff were needed, I'm sure no one would leave the phone in the office so it should have been answered, its the fact that people generally don't give a **** about their duties, that's what made me almost blow a fuse that day, every other airport I've been to in the world I have never seen empty desks at immigration, or security or customs, although the wait may be long due to the sheer number of people, there is nothing more that can be immediately done to help.
 
I travel international twice a month via ORT and the airport has improved vastly over the last couple of years. I very seldom experience long queues.
 
For all those brown nosing a has been band on Facebook.
Shame on You.
 
Ah ORT, how do they do, do they do, the things that they do? No other airport I know can keep up with them.
 
Have never waited more than 15 minutes at emigration at CTIA. Same for immigration.

Luckily I havent had to go through ORT recently... sounds terrible.
 
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