Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has reported a successful peak festive travel period from December 1, 2024, to January 16, this year, with a 91% recovery to pre-pandemic levels and a 4% year-on-year increase in total passenger traffic, as well as a 95% recovery and a 3% year-on-year increase in total movements.

Factors contributing to the recovery included the return of important international airline routes, new airline entrants and an increase in flight frequencies.

At a briefing on January 28, ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu highlighted that the company exceeded its planned performance target of about 5.38-million total passengers for the festive season, achieving about 5.47-million passengers.

Total movements, however, was 13% below the planned performance of 52 498 for the festive period, with 45 675 achieved.

The busiest day was December 13, with the processing of 139 935 passengers and recording 1 139 air traffic movements.

ACSA’s biggest airports, OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA), Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) and King Shaka International Airport, all achieved and sometimes exceeded their traffic projections.

Mpofu said that, while passenger traffic in South Africa had not yet fully returned to 2019 levels, the industry had shown significant improvement, with ACSA returning to profitability and paying a dividend.

ACSA recorded an over R400-million profit for the 2023/24 financial year.

CHALLENGES
ACSA was, however, hampered by significant operational incidents at ORTIA and the CTIA.

On December 9, ORTIA experienced a disruption in its fuel supply when the Feeder Line Actuated Valve at the airport’s bulk Jet A1 fuel storage facility failed in the closed position, preventing manual operation and halting fuelling operations across all aprons for about four hours.

The faulty valve was repaired, and the replacement valve was installed on December 11.

ACSA submitted the valve for laboratory analysis to determine the cause, with a full report expected early this year. Mpofu called for patience until the final report was received, with this expected to provide clarity on the cause of the failure.

Also, between December 15 and 16, the Border Management Agency (BMA) experienced delays at passport control at ORTIA owing to suboptimal performance of the Biometric Movement Control System during the peak travel period. This resulted in extended wait times for passengers.

To mitigate the impact, ACSA collaborated with the BMA, advising passengers to arrive three hours prior to their flight departure, an increase from the usual two-hour recommendation, to accommodate potential delays, and BMA also activated the older Electronic Movement Control System counters to assist with passenger flow.

Mpofu said this ensured that queue times were reduced by 60% to 75% across all terminals.

Meanwhile, on January 22, 2024, the CTIA experienced a power disruption following a fault at the substation, which caused an increased load on the fuel power cable and ultimately led to a cable failure.

During the outage, the fuel depot operated on generator power while the issue was being addressed.

In response to the incident, ACSA implemented measures to enhance system redundancy, including the installation of an additional generator and initiatives to prevent future cable failures, such as load reduction protocols.

Mpofu stressed that tackling infrastructure decline was now being prioritised, after spending on this was limited owing to financial pressures during the pandemic.

There is R21-billion in capital expenditure projects slated for spending over the next five years, of which R14-billion is earmarked for maintenance, refurbishment and replacement of infrastructure.

FUEL SUPPLY ISSUES
On January 4, a fire at the Natref refinery led to a shutdown, cutting off 72% of the region’s fuel supply and putting pressure on the fuel supply chain.

The refinery is expected to restart by February 27.

To address the issue, ACSA, working with fuel suppliers, airlines, Transnet and government departments, has implemented alternative fuel supply solutions securing 121.1-million litres of jet fuel at ORTIA.

The imported fuel is currently being transported by rail and pipeline from Durban and will be delivered to ORTIA in multiple tranches over the next month.

ACSA said it is monitoring key risks to fuel supply, and undertaking mitigation measures.

Immediate actions include engagement with relevant industry organisations and securing supply for next month.

Medium-term interventions include the establishment of strategic aviation fuel reserves; prioritising policy implementation for fuel reserves; and increasing refining capacity in the country.

ACSA emphasised the need for collaboration on strategic fuel policies; accelerated storage and logistics planning; and implementation of fuel exchange among fuel companies.