The Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) has noted with renewed concern and frustration the recent rash of incidents that disrupted airline operations over the summer peak travel season and throughout this month.
The incidents are primarily related to the reliability of re-fuelling infrastructure, electrical power supply and redundancy systems at O.R. Tambo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport.
There remains ongoing uncertainty regarding the management of fuel reserves as well as the security of the Jet fuel supply. Either way, uncertainty directly impacts the ability of airlines to fulfil their schedule integrity.
Airlines are still feeling the adverse impact of the very slow pace of restoring the 326 instrument flight procedures countrywide that ATNS withdrew in July 2024.
Add to these concerns last weekend’s cyber breach at the SA Weather Service that has disrupted the provision of aviation weather observations and forecasts which are mission-critical for flights.
“Airlines and passengers pay statutory user charges to the various State aviation agencies for the provision of reliable, safe efficient and affordable services.
However, AASA is concerned that ACSA, ATNS and SAWS applied to their respective economic regulators for new tariff increases when they have been unable to provide the full range of the services that they have been paid for.
“At the same time the airlines are bearing the brunt in terms of ensuring that they meet their commitments to their customers by having to provide alternatives for disrupted operations,” said Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA.
Fuel availability has been a critical item since 2021 when the Durban refinery was damaged in the unrest, followed by floods that wreaked havoc and rendered the railway line between Durban and the Reef unserviceable.
The closure of the Astron refinery in Cape Town (it reopened last July and is still ramping up production) added to the woes.
“These left the industry heavily reliant on imported jet fuel, for which airlines operating within and from South Africa are forced to pay an exorbitant premium reflecting the additional logistics, duties and other costs applied to the fuel before it gets anywhere near an aircraft fuel tank,” he added.
The recent fire at Natref in Cape Town, which is the central collection point for jet fuel before it is pumped via a dedicated pipeline to ACSA’s storage facility at OR Tambo, caused further disruption and heightened concern.
“Earlier this month Natref assured us the repairs will be completed by February 21, but it has not provided any progress reports so we have no idea if it will meet that self-imposed deadline.
In the meantime, AASA is cautiously comforted by ACSA’s assurance that sufficient fuel stock has been secured to 02 Feb, but we are also painfully aware that while ACSA owns the storage and refuelling infrastructure and equipment, it does not procure or own fuel,” explained Munetsi.
Fuel procurement is the responsibility of the fuel companies which have commercial supply agreements with the airlines.
However, since the local aviation industry shocks triggered in March 2020 by the COVID-19 lockdown, the fuel suppliers have taken a very conservative approach to their Jet fuel inventory management, resulting in a more than halving of the average reserves at OR Tambo from 11 days to around four days, which has been sufficient to sustain airline operations.
“AASA is not privy to those individual supply contracts and they are not made public. However, we note that the NOTAM imposing fuel uplift restrictions, including a ban on flights tankering fuel, from OR Tambo (ref. A0237/25 NOTAMN), remains valid until 1 pm on February 25, unless it is withdrawn before then.
This suggests neither the fuel suppliers nor ACSA can guarantee the necessary volumes and that, until the shipments arrive at the O.R. Tambo International Airport fuel storage depot, we should remain concerned about potential disruptions to operations.”
