Limpopians back to flying at night!

FLIGHTS can now land at the Polokwane International Airport.

This after the suspension of instrument flight procedures prohibiting flights from landing has been lifted on Tuesday, 8 April.

Due to the suspension, flights were grounded from Tuesday, 1 April and six flights have been cancelled so far, inconveniencing customers.

However, flights could not land on Wednesday, 9 April due to rainy weather conditions.

Limpopo Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba visited the airport on Wednesday, 9 April to understand the challenges and interventions required. She said the aim was to find amicable solutions to resolve the challenges of flights not landing and taking off.

"Reliable transport, which includes air transport is a very critical enabler towards economic growth and development. As such, we cannot afford these disruptions which are having a negative impact towards our economy," said Ramathuba.

She said the Air Traffic Navigation Service (ATNS) must develop guidelines which the aviation authority as a regulator must approve.

"That work was not done on time, hence the pilots couldn't land from Tuesday, 1 April because there were no guidelines guiding them on what needs to be done," she said.

Ramathuba said the good thing is that the suspension has been uplifted, however they still face a long-term challenge.

"When the weather is bad, this area becomes worse because pilots aren't able to see the runaway, so they can't land hence we need the instrument which we need to procure. The one that they had was decommissioned because it was very old," she said.

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Airport's Commercial Service's Tshepo Ramokgopa said they welcome the move by the ATNS, which confirms the upliftment of suspension of instrument flight procedures by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) due to outstanding submission of reviewed procedures by ATNS.

"This brings to an end disruption of delayed and cancelled flights at the airport. We were assured that all critical flight approach procedures were submitted to SACAA as part of the maintenance and have since been approved," said Ramokgopa.

The procedures approved are valid for five years, however they still anticipate random delays especially during April and May due to misty mornings around the airport.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo is calling for the cash strapped airport to be privatised. Party provincial spokeswoman on transport and community safety, Marie Helm said since 2019 the department forked out R464 509 000 to keep it afloat and another bailout of R152 million has been allocated in the current financial year.

"It's clear that the airport is incapable of turning into a profitable business to contribute to provincial revenue," she said.