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Air traffic suffers at George Airport due to rain, disrupting the itineraries of hundreds of passengers. On Sunday, 24 flights were cancelled and by yesterday afternoon rain and fog had led to the cancellation of a further 21 flights. Flights to George were diverted to Port Elizabeth, while passengers stranded in George were taken there by bus to catch connecting flights, airport manager Brenda Moses said yesterday. But reports coming into The Herald indicated that these re-routed passengers were still struggling to get to their destinations, with a flight to Durban being cancelled twice before it finally left last night.

The turmoil follows the ruling last week by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which said until friction tests were reviewed the runway would be closed as a precautionary measure during rainy weather. The tests were undertaken following a probe into the dramatic crash landing of an SA Airlink jet at the airport in December. Moses said about 600 passengers were affected yesterday and more on Sunday.

“The safety and welfare of our passengers comes first so we arranged with the relevant airlines to transport passengers to and from Port Elizabeth.” She said the runway could remain closed until Friday as the weather office predicted between 30% and 60% chance of rain until then.

The DA has, meanwhile, asked for answers from government regarding CAA’s ruling. George MPL Marius Swart said he had sent a parliamentary question for the attention of Transport Minister Sbusiso Ndebele “to ask what he is going to do to urgently resolve the situation of a defunct airport in wet conditions, in view of the fact that three international soccer teams will shortly be staying in the area during the Fifa World Cup”.

The question will be tabled during question time in Parliament later this week. Swart said he wanted answers because hundreds of people, including DA leader and Western Cape Premier Zille, had been unable to fly to or from George Airport since Sunday. CAA communications manager Kabelo Ledwaba said the authority was still assessing all possible variables that might have contributed to the December Airlink accident. “A friction test was performed again on February 15 and results indicated that the runway friction was within the prescribed limits.

“This presents a challenge when viewed against the fact that the data from the aircraft flight data recorder indicates that all systems appeared to have functioned normally (inclusive of the brakes and the anti-lock braking system) and the approach and landing profiles and speeds were within normal limits.” Ledwaba said the cause of the accident had to be identified to prevent a similar accident occurring.

“The runway surface was found to have 46% of the recommended macro-texture depth of a new runway. This fact, together with a bitumen fog spray that was applied to the runway in November, before the first rain, is also under investigation.” Acsa declined to comment on the report. “We hope to issue a statement soon,” said Acsa spokesman Colin Naidoo.