Durban - Holidaymakers who were heading home and business people rushing for international connecting flights had a chaotic day at King Shaka International Airport on Tuesday after flights were delayed by fuel delivery problems.
Mango had one of its flights, from Cape Town, diverted to Joburg for refuelling before coming to Durban.
Tuesday’s disruptions followed a day without water at the airport, on Monday.
Airport spokesman Colin Naidoo said they, along with fuel supplier Skytanking, were still investigating what had caused the problems.
“As part of the contingency, we have issued a notice to all airlines to fuel their aircraft at their point of departure so that the aircraft will have fuel when departing Durban,” he said.
“We are fuelling aircraft via a fuel truck until the system comes back on line, and we have managed to ensure the safe departure of all aircraft that were affected.”
Naidoo said that apart from the normal delays, five flights were delayed as a result of the fuel problems.
When asked what the actual problem was, Keith MacQuillin, Skytanking’s Durban general manager, referred questions to Naidoo. The company is present at more than 40 international airports in 11 countries.
Delays
Mango spokesman Hein Kaiser said their aircraft had a refuelling problem and had delays in and out of Durban, with knock-on rotational delays throughout on Tuesday.
A fifth of Mango’s morning flights were affected by an average of 90 minutes because of the fuel problem in Durban.
Kaiser said the airline had lessened the impact by refuelling inbound flights to Durban at other airports, and swopping planes.
“By midday all Mango flights affected were back on schedule due to the operational adjustments made.”
Kaiser said there had been no resolution to the refuelling challenge.
SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said they understood that there was a power failure at the airport in the morning, which affected the fuel pumps that supplied jet fuel.
“We uplifted fuel from Joburg to enable us to operate from Durban to Joburg without disruptions occasioned by lack of fuel supply. Only one flight was delayed,” he said.
On Monday, the airport ran out of water and passengers were supplied with bottled water.
Naidoo said they had resolved the water problem, but the airport’s contingency plan was still in place.
“Passengers and airport staff will still be issued bottled water for drinking if necessary, and our fire department will still assist with water from our fire truck to ensure restaurants can continue their business and for restrooms to be replenished with water,” said Naidoo.
The eThekwini Municipality had not responded about the water cut-off by the time of publication.
The airport falls into the drought-stricken area serviced by Hazelmere Dam.
Delays frustrate passengers and staff
In the absence of information from the airport and carriers, conspiracy theories were being exchanged by passengers as they waited.
One passenger told The Mercury that a relative who worked at the airport had told him that fuel had not been ordered to save money ahead of Wednesday’s dramatic fuel price drop.
However, this seemed not to be true as the problem was not a shortage of fuel, but in delivering it to the planes. And, since Skytanking runs the fuelling operations at all South Africa’s big airports, any money saved in Durban would have been lost when the planes filled up at other airports.
Some of the passengers were meant to take connecting international flights, and others, who had gone shopping at Gateway, evidently missed their flights when the delays were shortened by an hour.
Ray White, of the Bluff, almost missed his connecting flight from Joburg to Singapore after the delay at King Shaka International Airport.
His mother, Laura Cunningham, said White’s flight was supposed to leave at 9am, but they were told it would leave only at 12.30am ‘There was no proper communication from the airport management. But, after an hour, or so, they said it would be leaving at 11am,’ she said.
The flight left at 11.10am. It got to Joburg at 12.10pm and his flight to Singapore left Joburg at 1.30pm.
‘He just made it on to that flight. He sent me a WhatsApp message to say he was one of the last to board. He was clearly frustrated.’
Cunningham said that on her son’s flight there were 11 passengers who had to catch international flights.
She said some of the passengers had gone to Gateway to shop and the 11.10am flight had to leave without some of them.
‘They had to offload luggage of the passengers who had gone to Gateway, which caused another delay.
‘It’s good he got away. If he had not, there would have been severe implications because the flights to Singapore were fully booked for the next two days,’ said Cunningham.
A Cape Town man and his family of five who had come to Durban for a holiday were also caught up in the chaos.
Their plane home was to have departed at 8.45am but left only at 11.20am.
He said staff at the check-in counter had been vague, not giving them answers about the delay.
‘They kept on saying it was a minor problem, but one guy was also frustrated and told us it was not just our flight but all the flights because the company had no fuel,’ he said.
The Mercury