OR Tambo International Airport faces chaos before G20

Days before the G20 summit, South Africa’s primary international gateway, OR Tambo International Airport, was in disarray.

Airlines, industry associations and insiders raised alarm over water outages, power failures, broken equipment and crumbling infrastructure, blaming poor maintenance.

Staff describe worsening operational collapse and Acsa confirms outages

An airline staffer described Sun‑ day’s outage as “another horrendous day”, noting check‑ins collapsed, baggage sorting stalled, fuelling halted and offices went dark.

“We left bags behind again. It is the third outage in a week,” the staffer said.

Images shared with The Citizen showed closed baggage scanners and staff resorting to manual searches to move massive queues.

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) spokesperson Ofentse Dijoe confirmed outages, attributing them to Ekurhuleni supply faults.

He said backup generators switch on within a minute, with systems rebooting in 10 minutes.

“Our priority is restoring full functionality as quickly and safely as possible,” Dijoe said.

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Security concerns and long-standing maintenance issues

Airlines disagreed, saying recovery takes far longer and backup power is limited. Cargo areas were exposed, with lapses in access control, according to a security source.

Acsa countered that 38 diesel generators supported essential services, while a R21 billion up‑ grade programme is underway to modernise the airport.

Still, confidence is eroding. Water outages have compound‑ ed frustrations, while escalators, travelators and air bridges are frequently out of service.

A damaged perimeter fence on the eastern side has remained unrepaired for more than three years.

Acsa insisted downtime is low and the fence has no bearing on operations. Fuel supply has also been con‑ tentious.

Dijoe denied shortages, saying critical systems remained operational during outages.

Airlines warn delays are becoming unmanageable

Yet airlines recalled major shortages in December last year and in January, while Cape Town International currently faces a fuel crisis.

For carriers, the combined impact of repeated outages, system failures and suspended procedures is becoming harder to absorb.

“Delays cascade across the day,” one airline source said. Department of transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said Transport Minister Barbara Creecy remains focused on accountability.

The timing is critical: as South Africa hosts the summit, OR Tambo’s failures risk undermining confidence in its ability to serve as the nation’s global gateway.

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