Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, held an urgent oversight meeting with all transport aviation entities – Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS), Acsa and the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) – to discuss the ongoing flight disruptions caused by ATNS finalising its audit of instrument approaches at various airports around the country.

In the meeting, Creecy emphasised the need for ATNS to get to the root cause of why the auditing processes were taking so long. She emphasised that it was critical that no corners should be cut in relation to safety.

The meeting also agreed that ATNS must, as a matter of urgency, develop a comprehensive plan for consideration and approval by the Minister.

“The plan must be costed with realistic timeframes as well as indicate the technical capacity required to review all flight instrument procedures. ATNS was instructed to submit this plan within two weeks from the date of the meeting (on August 20). Once an acceptable plan is in place, it will be shared with the aviation industry and the nation,” the Department of Transport said.

Progress

Instrument flight procedures are used by aircraft flying in accordance with instrument flight rules and are designed to facilitate safe and efficient aircraft operations.

ATNS has provided an update saying there is an ongoing process to submit updated instrument flight procedures to SACAA for approval.  

“As and when we receive feedback from SACAA regarding the developments on the technical information required, we do the necessary updates and resubmit to SACAA,” said ATNS.

While ATNS reported that some of the procedures submitted to SACAA had been approved, several were awaiting approval, others were going through adjustments, and some airports, like Kimberley and Umtata, were still suspended.

ATNS acknowledged that a significant amount of inconvenience had been experienced by the aviation industry in particular, and the travelling public in general.

“This matter is being given the urgent attention it deserves, and a solution is in sight, which will, however, not compromise safety standards,” ATNS said in its update.