GEORGE NEWS - Passengers hoping to fly to George Airport can continue to expect future flight cancellations, diversions or delays in instances of bad weather as certain flight procedures are still suspended by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). It is expected that the final procedures will be approved by next week.
At least eight flights to George Airport were cancelled on Monday 21 October. In addition, two flights were diverted, including a flight from Cape Town that had to return to Cape Town and a flight from Johannesburg that was diverted to Gqeberha.
Flight procedures determine the landing, take-off and other procedures a plane must follow when arriving at or departing from an airport.
The Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) is responsible to design and renew these procedures, which have to be approved by SACAA.
According to Kirby Gordon, chief marketing officer at FlySafair, it's a very technical and time-consuming process, and one of the main issues that can complicate the process is structures that rise into the air space surrounding an airport - especially informal structures.
This is, however, just one of a great number of studies that may or may not be required to get the approval.
In a media statement released in July, the ATNS said it was still busy with the "instrument flight procedure maintenance programme needed to be carried out as part of routine global safety protocols".
The procedures need to be reviewed in order to align with global advancements in aviation technology and safety requirements. ATNS states in the media release that "all procedures related to the affected airports [will be submitted] to SACAA by the end of August 2024".
However, it seems that they have missed the deadline and the flight procedures have not been approved.
According to Gordon, the deadline to complete the survey was already extended from 2023 to 2024, but ATNS has a backlog with many landing, take-off and other procedures that have not been improved.
And those that have not been approved have been suspended. "So, while it might sometimes be possible to land a plane, it is illegal because the landing procedures have not been cleared," said Gordon.
In response to questions posed by George Herald, ATNS head of corporate affairs and communications Mphilo Dlamini explained the reason behind the disruptions, saying that while flight procedures for George Airport's runway 29* have been approved on Monday 21 October, the wind direction favoured George Airport's runway 11, which doesn't have all the procedures in place.
"The procedures for runway 11 were submitted to SACAA for approval on Sunday and we expect the outcome very soon. We are hopeful that would be next week latest.
Once runway 11 procedures are approved, George Airport will not have issues, since runway 29 does have valid procedures in place," clarified Dlamini.
* Runway 29 and runway 11 refer to opposite landing approaches to the same physical runway.
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