Paula Luckhoff19 March 2025 | 20:20

Airlines see ATNS backlog in procedure update as 'calamity' - outgoing Airlink CEO

The Money Show gets the lowdown from Rodger Foster, outgoing CEO and MD of carrier Airlink.

Airlines see ATNS backlog in procedure update as 'calamity' - outgoing Airlink CEO

Cape Town International Airport. Picture: Airports Company South Africa/Facebook

Outgoing Airlink CEO Rodger Foster has warned about the 'serious safety risk' created by South Africa's beleaguered Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS).

Foster was addressing the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (Barsa).

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy this week gave the assurance that work was being done to stabilise the ATNS around inefficiencies that led to flight delays at various airports.

It's not a recent problem, as Foster points out on The Money Show.

RELATED: Flight delays: ATNS says it's 'on top of backlog' in updating critical procedures

Last year, the state-owned company began administrative maintenance related to instrument flight procedures, including about 66 now set to expire in three weeks.

While they understand that the Minister is 'getting her sleeves rolled up', local airlines see the current situation as a calamity, Foster says.

"It's a shortcoming at the NATIONAL level. This is about instrument flight procedures, and the maintenance of these procedures which has been brewing for three or more years."
"It's not about spanners or grease; this is about an administrative maintenance... It's the departure procedures, the arrival and the landing procedures that have been suspended historically and are about to be suspended again."
Rodger Foster, Outgoing Airlink CEO

A controversy aligned to this backlog, is the fact that tariff hikes are being implemented for services the ATNS is not actually providing to airlines.

"The most recently published increase ranges between 18-24%. I think the issue the airlines have at the moment is why should there be ANY increase and, as you suggested, there rather not be a discount because they're suffering as a consequence of the absence of these instrument flight procedures."
Rodger Foster, Outgoing Airlink CEO

To hear more from Foster, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article