As South Africa reaches its peak festive season travel period, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) urged international travellers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before your scheduled flight's time.
For domestic travellers, Acsa is urging travellers to ensure that they arrive at least two hours before their flight time.
“As a result of the incidents we have had we are proposing an alternative arrangement. This is akin to what we have used during Covid-19 times in order to be able to manage the big numbers that are coming through this festive season,” said Acsa chief executive Mpumi Mpofu at a media briefing.
“After consultation with BMA (Border Management Authority) and ourselves to make travel easier and more pleasurable for travellers in this coming peak starting from (Friday) this measure that we used in Covid would ask for travellers to extend the time they spend at the airport,” she said.
“We are therefore moving away from the traditional two hours before international travel and we are requesting passengers to arrive, in this instance for this peak season, three hours before. Just that additional hour is able to help us ease both the big numbers coming through and also ensure that we support the BMA in the implementation of their particular system.”
Mpofu said the recent long queues and delays at the airports, which caused frustration among travellers were a result of the border management system of the BMA which experienced some problems.
Earlier this month, IOL reported that Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille, has lashed out at Airports Company South Africa following refuelling problems at OR Tambo International Airport that caused flight delays.
The problem was resolved and that system is now fully operational.
"Operations are currently back to normal. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you are still experiencing delays, please reach out directly to your airline for further assistance," Acsa said in a statement at the time.
However, De Lille said the damage has already been done, considering that it is peak season of travelling, and domestic and international travellers were inconvenienced.
“I think this is a disaster, the impact and the knock-on effect on tourists, and also business and trade people. People miss connecting flights. Some people have been paying for the whole year, saving up money to go on a decent holiday. To be impacted like this, it shows that there is definitely poor maintenance at the airport,” De Lille said at the time.
“There was no contingency plan in place. For the high peak season, the least you expect from the Airports Company is to do maintenance on all their fuel lines, on their planes and everything. I can understand the frustration of so many people that were stuck at OR Tambo International Airport.”
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL