The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has confirmed that Richards Bay Airport has been downgraded from a Category 5 airport to Category 2, until further notice.
This means that it may no longer allow scheduled passenger airline services to take off or land there.
The news broke when a travel agent posted on social media on Thursday, March 7, that her passengers were stranded at Richards Bay as the flights could not continue to operate.
Airlink is the only airline providing scheduled services to the airport, and an Airlink spokesperson confirmed on Friday to Travel News that services had indeed been halted.
He said: “Airlink is obliged to cancel flights to Richards Bay until the CAA lifts the restrictions on the airport and confirms that the firefighting infrastructure is at the correct level. It’s not possible for the airline to say when the flights to Richards Bay will resume.”
The Airlink spokesperson said agents should get in touch with the airline if they had ticketed passengers.
The SACAA issued a media release on Saturday, March 9, confirming it had on Saturday, March 8, issued a NOTAM (notice to airmen, essential information issued to pilots) regarding the status of the airport.
The SACAA said the downgrade of the FARB followed an inspection by the Regulator which identified the risks related to the facility’s fire and rescue services that do not meet the required safety standards under this grading.
“Under a Category 2 classification, an aerodrome is not permitted to land commercial aircraft and is only granted permissions for small aircraft.
“The Regulator will consider a higher aerodrome categorisation application as soon as FARB (the ICAO code for the airport) submits a corrective action plan that showcases compliance as well as the mitigation of safety risks that were identified at the airport,” said the media release.
