Refuelling glitch resolved at King Shaka International Airport, flights running smoothly

King Shaka International Airport. Picture: Sibusiso Ndlovu

King Shaka International Airport. Picture: Sibusiso Ndlovu

Published Apr 4, 2022

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Durban: A technical problem with the fuel hydrant system at King Shaka International Airport on Sunday left travellers frustrated as flights were delayed.

According to Terence Delomoney, ACSA Group executive of Operations, re-fuelling had to be done by tanker.

“The issue was resolved at 11:30am on Sunday. During this period there were six aircraft that experienced delays.”

Delomoney said all operations were back to normal since then, adding the airport had sufficient fuel stocks.

Kirby Gordon, FlySafair’s chief marketing officer, said two of their aircraft were delayed.

“That had a bit of a knock-on through the day but we did manage to recover the schedule on some of the later flights.”

Gordon said everything had returned to normal by Monday morning.

In March, Comair was suspended for five days over safety issues but the suspension was subsequently lifted.

In a statement the Civil Aviation Authority said they had audited Comair following a spate of occurrences which posed safety risks by Kulula.com and BA Comair Airlines.

The SACAA said: "(We have) concluded the assessment and evaluation of Comair’s evidence to close the Level 1 findings raised during the audit, which started on 7 March 2022. The evaluation of the evidence was concluded on the evening of 16 March 2022. The impact of this outcome paves the way for the Director of Civil Aviation to uplift the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of Comair with immediate effect.

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