George Airport's flight procedures yet to be approved

GEORGE NEWS - The South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) says the George Airport's submission on the airport's instrument flight procedures has not been approved due to discrepancies in the report.

Sisa Majola, Sacaa's head of communications, said on Thursday 13 February that Sacaa is awaiting a resubmission of an amended report with the necessary correction.

George Herald recently reported on the Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS)'s failure to do the required maintenance of instrument flight procedures (IFPs), leading to the suspension of various runways at South African airports, including runway 11 at George.

The suspension followed an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) in 2023.

Sacaa was approached for comment via e-mail on 30 January regarding its failure to enforce the maintenance of flight procedures by the ATNS.

Majola in his response said Sacaa had issued "findings" in this regard to the ATNS prior to the Icao audit. It was a normal review that was required of George Airport that had not been linked to the audit.

"ATNS then proposed [a] corrective action plan to the Sacaa that addressed the shortcomings," he said.

Majola said the allegation that the maintenance of flight procedures had been neglected for 12 years is "factually incorrect as each procedure has a date by which it is reviewed". IFPs "must be reviewed and/or maintained within a period not exceeding five years based on the date of the last approval, so there is no single deadline".

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