Flights from Polokwane Airport ‘almost there’ after earlier downgrade
MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya is excited by the progress made thus far.
POLOKWANE – The downgrading of Gateway Airport Authority Limited (GAAL) in May by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) from category level seven to level two meant that the Polokwane International Airport had lost its operating licence for commercial flights and it would be unable to actively contribute to the economic activity in the province.
MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya recently announced that the airport is well underway to reclaim its status, although only 11 of the 14 identified issues had been resolved. She says the remaining three are already in process and the service providers are on-site, along with the contractors should they be needed.
Also read: Polokwane airport waiting for the green light
Lerule-Ramakhanya spoke after performing an oversight visit to the airport during which the emergency team was running a fire simulation, after the relocation of the simulator which was one of the identified findings by Sacaa.
“We are very excited about the progress. The team was able to come out and do the fire drill and we were able to record the responding time and after all the issues have been addressed it will be a matter of waiting for Sacaa to come for inspection.”
She reiterated how important the successful simulation was and departmental media liaison officer Mike Maringa describes it as a mammoth task undertaken by the team and said the drill by emergency workers is another sign of progress. Maringa says the MEC undertook many trips since the downgrading of the airport in order to perform oversight and to ensure that the processes necessary to resolve the identified issues were running.
After the publication of the video, Polokwane Observer followed up with the department on the deadline that was previously set for completion of the 14 items and Maringa clarifies that there was no deadline set by anyone but that it was the wish of the department that by August they would have flights operating from the airport again.
“We are almost there, we are just waiting for two items now and for Sacaa to come back and do their job. As soon as they are done we will be able to resume with flights again.”
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