Operations back to normal at King Shaka International Airport after fuel challenges

The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has confirmed that all operations are back to normal after fuel challenges at King Shaka Airport in Durban.

Several flights were delayed on Sunday because of fuel challenges with many passengers taking to social media to vent their frustrations.

While plans to tanker fuel to the aircraft were made, the delays had a huge knock-on effect for passengers returning from holidays and weekends away, or making their way back to cities for the work week ahead.

Acsa said the delays from King Shaka may have also resulted in delays at OR Tambo Airport

It is unclear if other airports were affected by the fuel challenges.

Communications Manager at Acsa, Gopolang Peme shared a response on the fuel crisis from Group Executive: Operations Terence Delomoney with The Citizen.

“King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) experienced a technical problem with the fuel hydrant system on Sunday morning. 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. All operations were back to normal since then; KSIA has sufficient fuel stocks.”

Last month, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) suspended the operating licence of Lufthansa Technik, the organisation that maintains Comair’s fleet.

Sacaa said this comes after “a spate of incidents” with Comair aircraft.

It gave Lufthansa Technik 24 hours, with effect from Monday night, to resolve the issues identified by the aviation regulator.

This follows an audit by Sacaa where Lufthansa Technik’s quality control management system and safety management systems were reviewed.

At the time, British Airways and Kulula were grounded over safety-related issues.

These included incidents of engine failures on two Kulula flights, a landing gear safety incident on a British Airways flight in East London, and a failed take-off in Lanseria.

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