The SA Civil Aviation Association (SACAA) has suspended Plettenberg Bay’s airport licence, grounding all planned flights.
The suspension comes two weeks after CemAir halted flights between Cape Town and Plettenberg Bay.
This was announced during a council meeting by the Bitou municipality on Wednesday.
In the letter seen by The Herald, SACAA enforcement specialist Joseph Mtsweni wrote to senior airport operations officer Wendoll Davidson, saying it took the decision to suspend the aerodrome licence after repeated noncompliance by the municipality to do repairs, that included infrastructure challenges such as a breaking runway.
Before taking the decision, SACAA conducted three inspections of the airport, one on June 22 2023, November 29 2023 and the most recent on June 27.
“The inspections revealed that, among others, the surface of the runway and apron of the aerodrome is breaking in multiple places.
“As a result, in June 2023, the aerodrome was issued with one level 3 finding and the aerodrome was afforded an opportunity to submit a corrective action plan (CAP).
“The aerodrome submitted a CAP, wherein it was indicated that there was a project plan for the rehabilitation of the runway surface and road markings.
“The implementation date was identified as September 30 2023.
“Despite this undertaking by yourselves, on November 29 2023 during the renewal audit, it was found that the road surface, among others, was still breaking up.
“This resulted in SACAA issuing a level 2 finding as a result of the continued noncompliance,” Mtsweni wrote.
Mtsweni said a CAP sent by the municipality in December indicated that the municipality’s maintenance workers had fixed the road surface of the runway and apron.
An apron is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refuelled, boarded, or maintained.
Mtsweni wrote that another inspection in June revealed that despite previous assurances by the municipality to fix the highlighted issues, the runway surface was still breaking up and now with added signs of structural deterioration in multiple areas.
“While we appreciate the efforts taken to address the level 1 finding, we are of the view that there are no measures in place to immediately address or mitigate the risk associated with the level 1 finding as you have been unable to confirm the availability of funds to undertake the repairs.
“You have also not been able to confirm the duration of the repairs and as a result the safety risk remains.”
Mtsweni gave the municipality 30 days to appeal against the suspension at a fee of R2,815.
During Wednesday’s council meeting, Bitou acting municipal manager Ralph Links tabled an item related to the airport where the suspension letter was then read out.
Acting chief financial officer Manqoba Boy Ngubo said the municipality had not complied with findings identified during the inspection by the SACAA such as fixing the runway.
“Whether there is merit or demerit on that we will have to look at consequence management on individuals or people that should have done that.”
Ngubo said it was a priority for the municipality to fix the runway.
Council speaker Sandiso Gcabayi: “Fixing the runway is the municipality’s responsibility, we can’t give the airport to the aero company without fixing the aerodrome first.”
Gcabayi said the council resolved to appeal against the suspension and committed to fixing the runway which it said would take up to 12 months at a cost of R11m.
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