Poor coordination to be blamed for canned flights

5 October 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been inundated with calls from flight management of different airline companies threatening to cancel more flights due to the shambolic regulations regarding flight crews following initial cancellations by Emirates on Friday.

Dubai-based Emirates cancelled its flight to Durban for Sunday and also announced that it was cancelling its other just-resumed flights to and from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

The DA has requested that the Department of Transport immediately review the crew requirements in line with what has been undertaken and put in place internationally. The South African requirements are not practical and are outdated. International flight crew and passenger protocols have been updated with strict regulations to accommodate stringent health precautions. Pilots and flight crew maintain a safe bubble environment which allows them to travel safely. South African regulations do however not distinguish between crew and passengers.

This embarrassing situation comes after the first Emirates flight into the country since the extended Covid-19 lockdown was welcomed in Cape Town on Thursday. Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and Swiss International have also scheduled flights to South Africa. The DA fears that if these airlines’ crews are not treated in accordance with updated international protocols, they would simply avoid our airports – something we cannot afford.

There has been constant guidance on the management of crew members in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic with various updates on accepted health and safety aviation protocols such as the June edition under the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Since February 2020 EASA has developed, issued and updated a safety information bulletin to provide operational recommendations to European stakeholders in accordance with the official communications of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as well as facilitated access to guidance developed by other organisations (e.g. International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airport Council International (ACI), EU Healthy Gateways Joint Action Preparedness and Action at Points of Entry (Ports, Airports, Ground Crossings). It therefore boggles the mind how and why the Department of Transport is not aware and clearly out of touch with these protocols.

The DA will raise these issues on Tuesday when the Portfolio Committee on Transport is scheduled for a meeting with the Department and demand an explanation for these embarrassing and upsetting affairs.

Issued by Chris Hunsinger, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, 5 October 2020