OR Tambo Airport gets major funding from gvt to avoid future crisis

OR TAMBO-Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says his ministry is in the process of capacitating OR Tambo International Airport to be able to handle any challenges that might affect the smooth running of business at the place.

Mbalula told the media after conducting an oversight inspection at the airport following an incident last week in which 41 flights were delayed due to refueling issues.

Said the Minister, “They (ACSA) has all our support but we do undestanbd the challenges that they face in terms of the resources and not being able to spend on capital projects because of COVID-19 but we are now in full swing of recovery, we may give you detailed account form time to town but we will be in apposition to do so.

“There is a lot of things that were halted in this place so when you come to a place like this, it is one of the places we did not have capacity and money to spend to mitigate future crisis but as we said in the report we gave you, we are now in a capacity to do so. We are look to the next coming as years of boom and recovery.”

Mbalula added that airports are strategic assets for the Republic of South Africa and constitute major economic corridors connecting the country to the rest of the world.

“It is for this reason that in the last week, when flights were delayed due to what we now know as a technical fault at the fuel storage facility, I was inundated with queries from concerned citizens,” He said.

On 28 December there was chaos at OR Tambo International as the Airports Company South Africa said challenges with the main fuel valve saw some flights being grounded.

The crisis was later fixed after it caused delays with both domestic and International flights.