Fuel is new airport hitch
While Joburg based scheduled air service Cemair is optimistic that by April this year they could be flying into Grahamstown, it could be an issue as basic as fuel that keeps it earthbound for longer. But Makana Municipality says the ball is now in Cemair’s court.
The Makana Council late last year approved the signing of a service level agreement (SLA) with Cemair, and the local flying club says an offer it made last year still stands to carry out the upgrades required for the airfield and clubhouse to host a scheduled air service between Joburg and Grahamstown. Speaking to Grocott’s Mail last week, Cemair CEO Miles van der Molen said there were important, but not many, matters to be resolved before they could start their service.
One of these – and which has blindsided the Municipality – is fuel supply logistics.
“Grahamstown would have to selfsupply fuel is one of the logistical challenges,” Van der Molen said.
“Also, the building needs some work, and security would have to be supplied.”
Makana’s Director of Social and Community Services, Mandisi Planga, said, however, that while they were open to discussion, the matter of fuel was not part of the SLA.
“As you are aware Council is cash strapped and can therefore not commit to financing that [upfront],” Planga said in response to questions from Grocott’s Mail.
Grahamstown Flying Club chairperson Ron Weissenberg said upgrading of the security mainly involved fencing and a secure area for passengers and luggage.
“In order to facilitate the process, the Flying Club Committee members have volunteered their time to assist our Municipality and Cemair with practical implementation,” he said.
Weissenberg said a long delay in getting approval for the airfield’s new automated instrument approach technology application should not delay a scheduled operator from commencing the service.
“They will operate during daylight hours and clear conditions initially,” he said.
“The automated instrument approach technology and application approval was submitted to the SA Civil Aviation Authority about two years ago. The Flying Club is in regular contact with the CAA and even sent a representative to the CAA offices in Johannesburg. The CAA has advised they will attend to it in the normal course.”
It seemed the air service project was close to take-off at the end of last year. With hope expressed then that the start of the educational year would also mark the start of the new service, Grocott’s Mail asked Van der Molen to explain the latest hold-up.
“There was a flurry of activity late last year with several meetings in October and November,” Van der Molen said. It was around that time that the SLA went before Council and was approved for signing.
“However by that time, we were into our busy season – and that has carried over into the new year.
“Our biggest market is contract work outside the country. That’s been keeping us busy and we haven’t had the capacity to move [the Grahamstown project] forward.”
Cemair is a scheduled airline based at OR Tambo Airport. It has routes to Bloemfontein, Margate, Plettenberg Bay and Sishen.
“Over the next couple of weeks we’ll see what we can do. It takes a massive amount of energy and resources to get a thing like this going in Grahamstown – compared to towns like Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth, where all the infrastructure is already in place.”
However, Van der Molen is optimistic that some of the solutions they found for their operation in Plettenberg Bay are likely to help here.
Asked about a new timeline for the operation,, Van der Molen said, “When we were discussing this at the end of last year we were hoping to have things up and running by the Easter break – and that was already tight.
“It’s definitely too tight now to expect that we’ll be flying in here by the Easter holidays, but we’re still aiming at somewhere around April.
“On our side, the availability of equipment and planes will determine whether this will be achievable.”
There is a massive amount of administrative detail to complete, he said.
“Our membership of IATA (the International Air Transport Association) is now finalised.”
This was significant because every airport has a three-letter code.” It will be the same for Grahamstown. Because we are existing members, it won’t be complicated, but before we start the service, we will have to have that.”
There was no principal point of disagreement, but the implementation was complex and time consuming, Van der Molen said.
“We need to remake contact with Makana and make sure they have the necessary resources in place. We need to make sure Grahamstown is ready for us.
Plans for the scheduled air service were first announced at the end of November 2014, with three flights a week on the cards. Various initial delays included logistics around the presence at landing of a fire engine, a safety requirement.
This has now been resolved.