Flights resume following power outage at Cape Town International Airport

Cape Town International Airport. File picture Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers Archives

Cape Town International Airport. File picture Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers Archives

Published Jul 29, 2024

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The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has confirmed that flights had resumed at the Cape Town International Airport in the early hours of Monday morning following a power outage.

The power outage on Sunday caused planes to be grounded and other flights diverted.

In a statement update on Monday morning, ACSA confirmed that the runway lights and navigational aids were returned to service at 1am on July 29, allowing for safe aircraft landing.

They added that 11 air crafts landed thereafter.

“ACSA said technicians and specialists were continuing with permanent repairs and restoration of the network,” said ACSA apologising to travellers for the inconvenience caused.

“However we are waiting for a clear window of opportunity to execute the required work.”

FlySafair said several of their flights had to be diverted.

The airline said their operations centre was alerted to a power outage at Cape Town International Airport at around 8.30pm.

Flights en route to Cape Town were diverted to different airport, while new departures were halted.

“Significant delays are to be expected. A number of aircraft from several airlines have been diverted and they will all need to be afforded opportunities to complete their journeys into and out of the airport in sequence.”

In another incident in April, a wheel was damaged during take-off on a FlySafair flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town and was forced to return to Johannesburg.

In a statement the local airline said that flight FA212 had departed OR Tambo International Airport on schedule at 11.32am.

Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair said departure and take-off were normal and the crew set course for Cape Town.

“After take-off, ground staff at OR Tambo reported witnessing what appeared to be damage to one of the aircraft back wheels. The crew were alerted to the observation and the decision was taken to return to Johannesburg.”

On Monday Gordon told IOL that their schedule looked fine and there were minor delays.

“There were a few minutes delay on an aircraft leaving Joburg for PE - waiting for clearance to depart, but more than that it seems fine.”

IOL News