South African flight calamity — warnings about widespread delays and safety concerns

South Africa faces widespread flight delays and safety concerns due to regulatory failures at Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS). Outgoing Airlink CEO Roger Foster describes the situation as a calamity.

Although transport minister Barbara Creecy said progress is being made in addressing the issues, there are still significant challenges with flight procedures relating to the instruments used for arrivals and take-offs.

The ATNS failed to meet administrative deadlines in reviewing hundreds of crucial instrument flight procedures in South Africa, and urgent intervention is required to address these failures.

Speaking to 702, Foster said the issues aren’t new. They have been brewing for at least the past three years.

“It’s a huge issue. It’s a calamity the way the airlines see it,” he said.

“We know that minister Barbara Creecy is really getting her sleeves rolled up and getting into the granular detail of the issue.”

“It’s a shortcoming at the national level,” added Foster.

He explained that the shortcomings relate to administrative maintenance, which ensures that original designs are still appropriate and that instrument flight procedures are not hindered by new obstacles.

“It’s the departure procedures, the arrival procedures, and the landing procedures that have been suspended historically and are about to be suspended again,” added Foster.

Speaking to CapeTalk, Creecy explained that 66 of these procedures are due to expire on 10 April 2025.

However, she added that substantial progress has been made with regard to her department’s intervention efforts.

“I appointed an intervention team to get to the root of problems at the air traffic navigation services,” the minister said.

“From early January this year, we have had four work streams that have been addressing critical staff shortages and problems relating to communications systems between towers.”

She said they had also been addressing flight procedures as the safety management system as a whole.

“What I can share with you is that we are making progress with regard to appointing critical staff,” said Creecy.

She explained that the intervention team wanted to recruit 15 new people, of which two have already been appointed.

“We are in the process of making offers to 13 others and we have sent out headhunters to find senior ATNS staff that are working elsewhere around the globe to offer them incentives to return,” she added.

The transport minister also explained that her department works with original equipment manufacturers to ensure necessary upgrades are applied to the flight communications system.

Creecy added that her department would ensure the air-to-plane radio communication system is fully operational by 31 March 2025.

“I can also report to you that there’s been good progress with regard to the safety management system, which is dealing with a whole lot of historical backlogs in safety procedures,” she added.

However, the minister said there are still challenges relating to flight procedures, particularly instrument procedures used for arrivals and take-offs.

“There are 66 of these procedures that are due to expire on the 10th of April,” she said.

“We are prioritising 31 of them. These are the procedures for big airports so that we can keep the network system operating.”

“We’re in intensive meetings with the civil aviation authority to agree on an approach with regard to this.”

Creecy warned that this may mean delays at smaller airports when there is bad weather.