An unfortunate delay of flights from departing out of the country’s busiest airport, O.R. Tambo International Airport, due to a faulty main jet fuel valve could have been avoided.
This is according to pilot and aviation expert, Phuthego Mojapele, who was speaking on YouFM Newshour.
Operations were halted for several hours before airlines resumed refuelling again, disrupting operations and causing several flight delays.
According to Mojapele, the blame must be solely placed on Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) management as it failed to ensure that the facility is properly maintained.
“ACSA has been having several issues lately with regards to their operation, and what we have been trying to communicate with them is to expedite the repairing of the problems that seem to be recurring and continuing to disrupt the operations of our flights.
What happened over the weekend it’s something that shouldn’t have happened because it’s a pure lack of maintenance on the facilities of ACSA,” said Mojapele.
He implored ACSA to invest in their maintenance.
“What ACSA needs to do is what Brian Molefe used to say (is) a festival of maintenance on their facility so that they can get it sorted once and for all that’s what they need.
They need to do what we call a festival of maintenance on their facility and once that is done then we will see this problem going away, they won’t recur because it would have been resolved once and for all,” explained Mojapele.
Passengers were left frustrated at the airport as their flights were delayed.
Mojapele warned that the delays cost the airline a lot of money.
“Remember once you miss your flight there’s things like hotels, meals because passengers can’t be left stranded without being provided with food, water and accommodation if there’s a night to be spent at a particular airport.
That squarely goes into the pockets of the airline and that is not only about the passengers that are inconvenienced but it’s also about the running day to day of the airline business,” highlighted Mojapele.
The refuelling challenge at the airline came two days after pilots at the state-owned carrier ended their three-day wage strike.
