Flight delays at OR Tambo expose deeper cracks in SA’s aviation system

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JEREMY MAGGS: This past weekend [saw] persistent flight delays at OR Tambo International Airport, with Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) acknowledging human resource constraints.

Travellers facing longer waiting times, connections were disrupted, and real frustration building at the country’s busiest air hub. Airlines, airports and passengers all feeling the strain. But what does this say about the state of South Africa’s aviation ecosystem, and the urgent fixes needed to restore reliability and confidence?

I’m joined now by Guy Leitch, who’s editor of SA Flyer magazine. He’s one of the country’s leading voices on aviation. Guy, a very warm welcome. First of all, what’s your read, then, on these delays at OR Tambo? How serious were they in terms of operational impact?

Read: OR Tambo International flight delays amid post-festive travel rush

GUY LEITCH: Hi, Jeremy and your listeners, and Happy New Year to everybody concerned.

Well, let me start off by trying to put a positive spin on it, by saying that they’ve done better than I thought they would. I thought that they were going to hit the wall around about Christmas time, and they managed to get it into the new year before their systems hit the wall and started falling over.

But now to put some realistic light on the whole thing, it’s really not good. In fact, ATNS are speaking with forked tongue about the whole thing.

Initially they were saying that the problem was staff shortages. Now they’re trying to blame the weather. The reality is that ATNS is just not living up to its promises.

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It’s been making significant promises and undertakings and giving information out to say that the staff shortages were being dealt with, that lost skills were being enticed back, and that the problem would be resolved.

In fact, I was quite sceptical about them saying that a couple of flight procedures would be reinstated on Christmas Day. In fact, one or two were actually reinstated on Christmas Day, but the point that they don’t make in their public statements is that they’re actually going backwards.

Read: South Africa facing air-traffic-controller crisis, report says

Sure, they are getting some right procedures reinstated, but at the same time they’re losing key ones.

On 7 December, about nine that I just picked up from a scan through the Notices to Airmen, as they’re called, had been cancelled, and these were on absolutely key airport hubs, notably obviously Cape Town, Durban and OR Tambo.

It’s getting worse, not better, and this is why the system has fallen over.

I think that, at the risk of rabbiting on here, the reality is that they’ve been expecting too much from the staff members, the air traffic controllers, if you like, who they’ve managed to persuade to work through Christmas, and finally they’ve just said, okay, well that’s it, my overtime is done. I’m tired and I’m just not coming to work.

JEREMY MAGGS: When we talk about air traffic controllers, it’s a global issue though, isn’t it?

GUY LEITCH: Very much a global issue. That’s why the South African air traffic controllers are in demand around the world.

That’s why it’s proven so difficult for ATNS to entice back those they’ve lost. They’re really valued in places like Australia and the Middle East, where traffic is growing exponentially.

Here, if I may be so bold as to say, there’s still a toxic culture within the entire ATNS organisation, where old skills have been forced out and hopefully replaced by new skills, but that’s just not happening.

So they’re not succeeding. We saw in the United States, air traffic controllers just not coming back to work because they hadn’t been paid. This is a really big issue that is affecting skills supply around the world.

JEREMY MAGGS: Guy, these delays that you’re referencing, how do they impact airline operations from fuel costs and scheduling, knock-on effects to reputation and even commercial viability?

GUY LEITCH: I cannot emphasise how strongly they affect because ATNS talks about how we’ve had three or four-minute delays. That’s absolute nonsense.

Yes, although departure delays may have averaged three or four minutes for most of the flights, the problem is that it all knocks on, and it means that other aircraft can’t land.

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In fact, we’ve seen Airlink, for instance, has produced numbers that show that 50% of their flights were significantly delayed, 99 out of 204 flights were delayed, and a lot of them were delayed because of landing delays.

Now, obviously, they can’t just fly around indefinitely because they run out of fuel, so they had to divert to places like Gaborone and Durban.

This really affects the South African tourism economy in particular, because it means that people will go away with having missed essential connecting flights onwards or back to their destinations.

Read: ATNS seeks extension for expiring flight procedures after CEO’s blunders

It means that the entire reliability of the whole infrastructure of the whole ecosystem is suddenly called into question, and people will now no longer be confident booking onward flights, booking destinations and so on.

The problem yesterday has, in fact, continued on into today as well, so it hasn’t got any better.

JEREMY MAGGS: Is there a concern that global airlines might start to rethink capacity or route when it comes to South Africa?

GUY LEITCH: I think there’s a very real concern because South Africa has been trying really hard to entice global airlines to come to South Africa. The most successful initiative, and remarkably successful, is the Cape Town Air Access initiative.

Listen/read: Aviation analyst sceptical about government’s new air traffic task team [Dec 2024]

But if you can’t get people onto your flights because the domestic system is breaking down or because flights have been stacked for 45 minutes while they’re trying to get them on the ground, or because the system can’t handle the weather, which it should be able to, then obviously they’re going to rethink it.

There are so many different places competing for passengers.

Right now, the entire airline industry around the world is under enormous constraints because of a lack of supply of new aircraft.

There are now five or six-year delays in aircraft deliveries because of supply chain problems, Couple that with pilot shortages as well and airlines are tending to pull back on routes rather than expand routes.

JEREMY MAGGS: Guy Leitch is the editor of SA Flyer magazine. Guy, thank you very much indeed.

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