The South African Aviation Association (AASA) points to new concerns and frustration at the recent rash of the summer peak travel season and the incident that disrupts the airline's operations this month.
The incident is primarily related to infrastructure or reliability of refueling infrastructure, power supply and redundant systems at Tambo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport.
Continuous uncertainty remains in regards to fuel reserve management and the security of jet fuel supply.
In any case, uncertainty directly affects the airline's ability to meet schedule integrity. Airlines still feel the negative impact of a very slow pace of resilience of ATN's withdrawal in July 2024, recovering 326 equipment flight procedures across the country.
These concerns, along with cyber violations at SA Weather Services last weekend, disrupted the provision of aviation weather observations and flight mission-critical forecasts.
“Airlines and passengers pay statutory user fees to aviation agencies in various states to provide reliable, safe, efficient and affordable services.
However, AASA is concerned that if ACSA, ATNS and SAWS fail to provide the full scope of paid services, they will be applied to their respective economic regulators for new tariffs.
“At the same time, airlines are taking the brunt of ensuring they meet their commitment to their customers by having to offer alternatives to their disrupted businesses,” Aasa CEO Aaron Munetsi said It states.
Fuel availability has been an important item since 2021 when the Durban Refinery was unsettled and damaged, and flooding that has caused havoc and wasted the rail line between Durban and the Reef.
The closure of Cape Town's space refinery (which reopened last July and still has increased production) was a struggle.
“They rely heavily on imported jet fuels for the industry. Airlines operating within and outside South Africa are eligible to provide additional logistics, obligations and regulations that apply to fuel before they reach near the aircraft's fuel tanks. He is forced to pay an exorbitant premium, reflecting other costs, he added.
The recent fire at Natref in Cape Town has sparked further confusion and concern as it is a central collection point for jet fuel before being pumped through a dedicated pipeline to ACSA storage facilities. “Early this month, Natref guaranteed that the repairs would be completed by February 21, but as no progress report was provided, we are not sure if it will meet its voluntary deadline.
In the meantime, AASA has been carefully comforted by ACSA's guarantee that adequate fuel stock is protected until February 2nd, but ACSA owns storage and refueling infrastructure and equipment. During this time, we are painfully aware that we are not procuring or procuring our own fuel. Murezzi.
Fuel procurement is the responsibility of the fuel company that enters into commercial supply agreements with the airline.
However, since the local aviation industry shock triggered by the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, fuel suppliers have adopted a very conservative approach to jet fuel inventory management, with an average of 11 or tambo You can increase the reserves by more than half. It takes about four days to be sufficient to maintain the airline's business.
“AASA does not know of these individual supply contracts and is not publicly available, however, or restrictions on fuel ridges, including the ban on flight tanker fuel from Tambo (REF. A0237/25 Notamn) Please note that unless it is withdrawn previously, it will remain in effect until 1pm on February 25th.
This suggests that neither the fuel supplier nor the ACSA can guarantee the amount needed, and that we should continue to be concerned about potential disruptions in our operations until the cargo arrives at the OR Tambo International Airport Fuel Storage Depot. ”
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