Acsa to ‘do the right thing’ for passengers impacted by flight disruptions

Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) is a “responsible company” and “will do the right thing” in terms of compensating or supporting passengers impacted by significant delays and disruptions this week because of a fuel supply problem at OR Tambo International Airport.

This is according to CEO Mpumi Mpofu, who confirmed on Thursday that Acsa received a letter from FlySafair asking whether it was possible for Acsa “to consider a conversion of one form or another through the passenger charges”.

“We really operate on a legal basis … [and] it’s not up to us whether we pay or we don’t pay. It’s up to the facts that will be found around the root causes of the actual incident,” she said.

“That should be able [to] take us to effectively a clear understanding as to what Acsa can do.

“Even then we are advised by our legal people, who are advised by our insurance companies to say let’s take liability of this amount. It is not founded on our wishes or the desire of the passengers.

“It is founded on the basis of the technical report that suggests what actually happened here and therefore what responsibility we should be taking with respect to that.

“Acsa is a responsible company. We will do the right thing. There is no way we decide despite legal and insurance advice that we want to do something different.

“We will go in accordance with what we are advised we must do and we will do the right thing, particularly by the passengers,” she said.

ALSO READ: ‘Delayed indefinitely’: Planes ‘refuelling’ as OR Tambo chaos spreads across the country [VIDEO]

How many passengers?

Jabulani Khambule, Acsa regional general manager responsible for the OR Tambo and Braam Fischer international airports, said on Thursday that 413 flights and 50 209 passengers were impacted by the fuel supply problem on Monday (9 December), with 31 flights throughout Acsa’s network also cancelled because of the fuel supply problem.

“Our on-time performance, which is normally 99%, dropped to 58.17% on the day,” he said.

Khambule said a valve in the fuel supply system failed at 9am on Monday, preventing the supply of fuel to aircraft.

He said this was caused by a shaft in the valve gearbox breaking but fortunately they had a spare shaft and replaced the broken shaft and restored fuel supply by about 1pm.

However, Khambule said it took until about 8.30pm on Monday to clear the backlog of flights caused by the fuel supply system problem.

ALSO READ: Cape Town, OR Tambo ranked in top 10 best airports in the world

Act of God?

Mpofu added that laboratory technical analysis will tell Acsa the exact root cause of the shearing of the shaft.

“The insurance company needs to get to the bottom of that,” she said.

“The laboratory analysis, combined with the incident report, will give them [the insurance company] enough ground to determine liability on our part and what responsibility we take, whether it was just an act of God and nature, and the extent to which Acsa will take responsibility.”

Mpofu added that Acsa has a number of massive projects that are related to fuel and these projects are aligned to helping the company deliver an almost brand new, completely refurbished fuel system at OR Tambo International Airport.

But Mpofu said they have staggered these projects in relation to the risk.

Mpofu said they expect the 1km bypass fuel line to be fully implemented by February 2025, while the design consultants for the new 1.8km jet line are currently operating and in place and will have finished their designs in February 2025.

She said the contractor will go onto site in March 2025 and start implementing the new jet line that is to be installed.

Mpofu said the refurbishment of the fuel farms will be the next programme to be implemented, which is a large and very expensive project.

ALSO READ: Anger fills the air as passengers stranded at OR Tambo [WATCH]

Funding

Acsa will receive R21.7 billion over five years in terms of the tariff increases approved by the regulator.

Mpofu said Acsa applied for a tariff increase that would be “front loaded” to benefit in year three, four and five from the infrastructure developed.

However, she said the regulator said that after the Covid-19 pandemic and economic challenges, South Africans were not ready to absorb high tariff increases immediately in one or two years.

Mpofu said the tariff increase was staggered and Acsa receives 4.5% in the first year, 10% in the second year, 6.5% in the third year, 6.2% in the fourth year and 4.5% in the fifth year.

She said the R21.7 billion is split in terms of those percentages in the five-year cycle and means Acsa’s capital expenditure programme will be implemented in the same way.

ALSO READ: Acsa finally begins fixing dark, dingy, fading OR Tambo

The ‘other’ issue

Mpofu on Thursday also addressed reports of an application being lodged in the High Court in Johannesburg last week for the liquidation of Acsa because of alleged non-payment of debts – saying the liquidation claims were “just that” because if a person believes they are owed money by someone, they have a legal right to submit a claim for liquidation.

She said claims for liquidation are by no means a reflection of the financial status of a company or an individual and stressed that there is no basis upon which Acsa will pay a claim that has not first been verified because that verification determines whether it should be paid or not.

She said the amounts in the liquidation application specifically refer to claims that have been made for training and payment increases to security companies.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) claimed this week that Acsa is facing several liquidation applications over its failure to pay service providers more than R500 million.

Acsa denied this and has indicated it had received unverified claims totalling R126 million that were subject to an arbitration process.

Mpofu said these service providers have been asked to substantiate their claims but after eight months of failing to submit all their evidence had chosen to go to the media and abandon the well-established arbitration process.

“We are defending it [the liquidation application] and are being extremely responsible in the way we are dealing with this matter.

“We have a responsibility not to use Acsa funds in a way that is just spurious and respond to people who make claims [on the basis] that Acsa is a cash cow,” she said.

ALSO READ: Acsa returns to profit for first time since 2020

Acsa a ‘going concern’

Mpofu stressed that Acsa is not facing liquidation and is a going concern, as determined by the Auditor-General.

She said Acsa’s audited annual financial statements for last year showed it is in a good financial position and declared a profit.

“There is nothing to suggest that we are in financial trouble. More importantly, we are in a good position, says the AG, to settle our debt if it is verified.

“We made an unprecedented turnaround for an aviation company from losses of R2.5 billion to a profitable position in 2023 and there is nothing to suggest – when we have a genuine, validated and verified claim – that we will not be able to pay it.”

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.