LISTEN | ACSA has backup plans for fuel issues and arrival of passengers this festive season

The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) says it has backup plans in place to ensure smooth processing of hundreds of thousands of travellers this festive season after issues in recent weeks of lack of fuel and malfunctioning biometric systems.

It has also made changes to the times passengers are expected to arrive at the airport during the festive season.

Acsa CEO Mpumi Mpofu and Border Management Authority (BMA) commissioner Michael Masiapato held a briefing on Thursday to outline operational updates and measures being implemented to enhance the efficiency and security of the country’s airports.

The airports company has been experiencing issues in recent weeks, particularly at OR Tambo International Airport. At the weekend, the airport had long queues at the BMA’s passport control processing point as its biometric movement control system was not functioning as expected.

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Two days before, flights were delayed due to weather conditions while a week before 177 flights were disrupted at OR Tambo due to fuel supply issues. This left 22,073 passengers stranded due to a shattered driveshaft that prevented the pumping of jet fuel to refuel aircraft.

However, Acsa said it expects to process 119,696 international passengers for departure and arrival and 262,108 domestic passengers between Friday and Christmas Eve.

December 20 would be the busiest day in the peak, with 20,886 international passengers expected and 39,423 domestic travellers, Mpofu said.

As a result, Acsa would implement alternative arrangements similar to those during the Covid-19 pandemic which will require passengers to spend a longer time at the airport.

“We are moving away from the traditional two hours before international departures and requesting passengers to arrive this peak season three hours before. This helps us ease the large numbers of travellers coming through and also ensures we are able to support BMA in the implementation of their system.”

Domestic travellers would be expected to arrive two hours earlier instead of the usual one-hour, Mpofu said.

The second peak is expected between January 2 and 15, but the influx of travellers would be less as passengers arrive at different times, she said.

Regarding the new biometric system which ensures travellers are who they claim to be, Masiapato said 14 additional systems were brought to OR Tambo, including additional human resources.

“Four of those systems have already been connected, particularly at the entry sites,” he said.

Resolving the jet fuel issue under way

On the jet fuel issue, Mpofu said samples from the fractured driveshaft were still being analysed to determine the cause of the break.

There were three possible causes, which include high torque, meaning the driveshaft was spinning at an abnormal speed and cracked. Another possibility was potential high temperature which could cause shattering of the driveshaft. The third possibility was acidity in the driveshaft.

“On December 12 we replaced a valve. This was an additional safety measure to ensure the stability of the system.”

She said Acsa was upgrading its jet fuel system and was finalising the bypass process, where an additional route and a new pipe would be created as an alternative should a jet fuel pipe route malfunction.

“That project is already under way and will be completed by February. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t completed before December. The third project would be the implementation of a new jet [fuel] line. The design consultant is in place, appointed through procurement processes, and has started working. They are delivering their product in February and in March we expect a contractor to install the additional line, which will conclude the work stabilising the system and ensuring we don’t have another incident.”

She said Acsa was experiencing problems due to projects being halted between 2019 and 2024 while the company faced major financial losses each year.

Acsa lost R2.5bn in 2022 and R1.5bn the next year. In the 2023/2024 financial year it declared a profit of R472m.

“All of this could not happen earlier than 2024 because Acsa received permission for the five-year infrastructure projects from the minister of transport in January 2024 and allowed it into the budget on April 1.”

Of the R21.7bn allocated to the airports company from April 1, 70% would go towards refurbishment and rehabilitation programmes of jet fuel lines.

TimesLIVE