ATNS hails progress in addressing procedures backlog, recruits international designers to help

South Africa's beleaguered Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) made fresh promises at a presentation on Wednesday, where it went through its results for the 2024/2025 financial year.

Acting CEO Matome Moholola kicked off the media briefing with an apology to the broader public, including their customers, for the inconvenience that has resulted from their 'current operational challenges'.

He gave the assurance that the progress ATNS has made is an indication that they are not 'too far from the end of the tunnel'.

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In conversation with Stephen Grootes, Moholola highlights that the state-owned entity managed to update two thirds of the roughly 388 procedures required in total.

"We were able to maintain almost 240 of these, which have been approved by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). That is a huge improvement compared to where we come from - this time last year it was a different picture altogether."

They think of this as a great milestone, he says: 'We're headed in the right direction and we are actually pleased about it.'

Asked about a timeline for, Moholola says ATNS is looking at no later than July 2026 to have all the procedures completed around the country.

Among the problem airports he cites Polokwane, Richard’s Bay and Upington; where instrument flight procedures are expected to be effective on 25 December 2025.

The charts and procedures at Bloemfontein and Kimberley have been approved by the SACAA and will be effective on 27 November 2025

A recent success is the approval of the instrument approach procedure for Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, which is now back in operation.

A notable hurdle has been what Moholola says is a worldwide shortage of procedure designers, with the entity having had to work on a skeleton staff.

ATNS have ramped up their capacity now, by recruiting international designers to assist with catching up on their procedure backlog on a contract basis

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article