If you have made an arrangement with Air 2000, Riflepermits etc for meet/greet at JNB please contact them. As of Friday all these services can no longer meet you as you deplane. They can still assist with pre approved gun permits etc but cannot help you until you have cleared customs. Fees will be changed and some refunds will be forthcoming at least from Air 2000.

Mark

Mark,

What's the source for this info? Air2000?

-Steve

Steve,

That's correct. The below is from Air 2000 as of Friday 8/3/07

We have been advised by ACSA (Airports Company of South Africa) that with
immediate effect
ALL meets and greets from the sterile area, that is classed as international
airside have been cancelled. This requirement has been implemented to adhere
to international Civil Aviation standards, in specific to the recent FAA
/ICAO audits that have been conducted here in South Africa.

Secondly, the number of companies that have been offering meets and greet to
incoming hunters has grown to an untenable number and the control was out of
hand. This also lead to the termination of this service.

As this regulation was placed on us without notice we have not being able to
contact many of the
clients that have reserved this service with us but will honour all meets
from an area after they have gone through Customs and see them through the
South African Permit Office and assist where required to onward flights,
hotel transfers, lost lugagge and firearms tracing and firearm / luggage
storage.

Assistance in the domestic terminal will remain as it has always been, there
are no changes here. Clients that have requested assistance on return to
Johannesburg OR Tambo on domestic flights will be assisted as in the past.

Many clients have given us credit cards for the initial service, we will be
passing a credit accordingly to clients but are awaiting the new fee
structure. Once this is deteremined I shall be in contact again.

Your understanding of this situation, that has come as a complete surprise
ro us, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanking you,

Kind regards

Anne Gaines-Burrill
Air 2000 Hunters Support Service cc

Actually, Rifle Permits is still doing the meet and greet. They meet clients on the outside of the "sterile" area.

I spoke to Henry, one of the owners I believe, on friday and he said that this won't apply to them.

www.riflepermits.com

Mark,

Thanks. In my experience the meet on the 'sterile' side of immigration was not that important. It was getting the license stuff done ahead of time that was the important thing. Did you suggest that your clients use AIR2000 and, if so, are you still suggesting it?

-Steve

Steve,

I agree. Having the gun permit already pre approved before your arrival is the most important part of the service and I still will recommend clients use Air 2000. In a few days I'll call Anne at Air 2000 and see how it is going. If there is anything relevant in our conversation I'll post it here.

Mark

Sure it's good to get the permits approved in advance - but I was willing to pay the entire fee just to get "escorted" through the immigration process. THAT is where the main slow down has been the last two times I was there. It took so long I missed a not very tight connection and then spent hours waiting for the next SAA flight. [since they refused to put me on another airline]

Oh well, any other ideas for getting through that Immigration mess faster?

Mark;

I guess I'll be testing the new method with Air2000 in a couple of days (Aug 10 arrival in Jo'burg via British Airways transitiing through to Harare via SAA....)

I haven't heard anything from Anne yet. Your posting was the first I've heard of it. Thank you very much for the info. Having used Air2000 four times prior to this, I would have been very concerned if they were not waiting at the gate as usual. Now I won't be looking for them until I pass Customs.

Best regards... D. Nelson aka SWAMBO

Dear Guests

This is from my tips and tricks box ... it is essentially for the benifit of those considering transitting via JNB to other African destinations.

IMHO it is a VERY GOOD IDEA regardless of whether you think that you can get a same day link flight out from JNB to anothert destination following arrival

Rather than take the chances of late arrivals flight delays and other unforseen nuiances reseulting in you missing your scheduled connecting RATHER pre-book at least one overnight in JNB @ Afton Guest House as apart from giving you a nice rest after the long international flights it can also save the heartache of missing your connect flight and also in isolated instances having a bit of breathing space for those bags that may be missing and coming the next day etc

Cheers, Peter

It's interesting this has happened. When I arrived in JNB a few weeks back, the amount of people from rifle permit companies in the luggage area was insane. There were 7 different guys all jockeying to get their clients rifles for them out of luggage and over to SAPS. I was wondering how the heck they were allowed back into the luggage area.

I agree 100% that having the paperwork done ahead of time is key. I mailed my 520 to my Outfitter in March. He had it approved by SAPS ahead of time, I got my rifle, met him, got the approved paperwork and was out of SAPS in 2 minutes. Cost was $22 for the mail to SA.

I just yesterday returned from Zambia. Used the services of Lewsis at the Afton Guest house. In and out with no problems what so ever. We also overnighted with them both coming and boing, the hospitality and service was great.

As a side note to this we at the Ocean Basket last Friday night. That is definitely the only sea food restuarant that I have ever heard of that also had a belly dancer.

Will try to post a report on the hunt within the week.

H KITTLE