Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) would like to place on record its response to an opinion piece, written by Dr Dean Allen, titled: “For Gqeberha to really fly, our airport needs to make a better first impression” (The Herald, December 5).
Chief David Struurman International Airport is ACSA’s largest national airport and an important local and regional gateway in the Eastern Cape.
Together, Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport and King Phalo Airport contributed R4.8bn in economywide impact, supported 7,504 jobs and contributed 0.6% to provincial employment.
In financial year 22/23, the Chief Dawid Stuurman airport processed just fewer than 1.2-million passengers, which indicates a strong recovery towards pre-Covid-19 passenger levels of 1.69-million.
This strong growth has enabled us to put together an exciting development plan for the airport to support its future growth.
In the near term, the airport will undergo a major terminal expansion; adding about 15,000m² of terminal area to cater for about a million additional passengers, along with associated parking and access road infrastructure.
The terminal will be expanded on the east and west sides, which will include a new one-and-a-half-level processing facility.
The new terminal will feature self-service technology and other elements that will enhance the passenger experience such as children’s play areas, charging points, baby changing facilities, prayer rooms, green spaces, a viewing deck and more retail facilities.
Project funding for the inception stage of the expansion has been secured and we are in the process of procuring a professional team to progress the design for the new facility and associated services.
While many of the issues raised in the opinion piece are valid, some of these issues have already been resolved, while others are being addressed.
We continuously seek to engage all our stakeholders and broader industry players, including, tourism bodies, tour operators, business chambers, as well as local and provincial spheres of government, to keep them abreast of developments and issues affecting the airport.
I would like to emphasise that most of the points raised in the opinion piece did form part of a recent engagement with a group of tourism industry representatives and the Nelson Mandela Bay economic development and tourism department on November 28, where we as airport management shared our plan to address these matters.
Listed below is an update on the matters identified:
• Lights not working in the arrival hall: We have addressed this issue, and we are continuing to monitor the situation, as there are some areas where we could still improve. The problem stems from some lights having been tilted at an angle so as not to cast a glare in the eyes of travellers. These adjustments have led to some areas losing illumination. While this has been fixed, we are looking at making further improvements.
• Broken luggage carousel: A new contractor was recently appointed for a three-year period and will be responsible for the maintenance and continuous upkeep of the airport’s baggage carousels. The current carousels are old and there are plans to replace them. This is earmarked for early in the new year.
• Stench from airport toilets: This was due to a plumbing issue which has now been addressed. Plumbers were on site for three days carrying out extensive work to rectify the problem which resulted from a PVC sewerage pipe that had disintegrated in places due to old age. The pipe is next to the baggage conveyor system and the stench would arise as the bags came up and air from the basement was introduced into the terminal building. We will continue to monitor the situation.
• Broken booms and payment machines in the airport parking lot: The ageing parking system will be replaced in the new year. We are looking at March 2024 to start the installation of equipment and cabling, with completion slated for May 2024. In the meantime, we have trained staff who immediately attend to any parking infrastructure that is out of service.
• Shaded parking: We have had some challenges in securing a service provider to replace missing and damaged shade covers for the parking area. However, we have now issued a purchase order and we believe that we have secured the correct contractor. We will expedite this issue to ensure the shortest turnaround time possible for this project. The damage to the shade covers resulted from adverse weather and we are exploring alternative long-term solutions that will take into account the climatic conditions in Gqeberha.
• Information desk: We committed to open the information desk on December 1, but this was implemented on November 28. We have temporary staff on board who are managing the information desk.
— Employee behaviour: Our pledge to customers is to drive a culture of excellence in customer service, and one of the ways we will achieve this is through the ongoing PRIDE in Action initiative, which is customer service and behavioural training that aligns internal and external stakeholders to carrying themselves as per our PRIDE values — Passion, Results, Integrity, Diversity & Excellence.
We are continuously working to ensure our airport not only maintains industry best practices for airport standards, but contributes positively to the growth of our region.
- Claudia Daniels, airport manager at Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport
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