South Africa: OR Tambo's Half-Hour Check-in Pledge


October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October 2007

Khulu Phasiwe
Johannesburg

PASSENGERS checking in at OR Tambo International Airport will by 2009 to able to do so in less than 30 minutes, Airports Company SA (Acsa) said yesterday.

Acsa's website now advises passengers to arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes before their departure time.


The airports operator said it wanted to improve its efficiencies and enhance customers' flying experience by reducing the long queues at check-in counters and customs checkpoints.

The airport is expected to handle 22-million passengers by 2012, up from 16-million now.

Speaking at the opening of the new R535m international terminal, Chris Hlekani, Acsa GM for the airport, said the company was constructing a new R2bn terminal building which would have 75 new check-in counters, bringing the total number to 254.

The facility, to be used for international and local traffic, would go a long way to alleviating queues at the airport, he said.

The terminal building, which would also house the train station for the Gautrain rail link, would link the current international and domestic terminals, he said.

This would allow passengers to move seamlessly from one building to the other. At present passengers have to leave one building to enter the other.

Hlekani said customers would be processed interchangeably at either domestic or international check-in counters during peak hours or over holidays to reduce queues.

Two new R300m multistorey parkades with an additional 4000 parking bays would also be built to cope with increased traffic at the airport.

Acsa MD Monhla Hlahla said the company, together with airlines and the home affairs department, was working hard to improve its efficiencies and enhance customers' flying experience. She said all stakeholders would benchmark their performance against international best practice.

Hlahla said the new terminal building, which was officially opened yesterday but has been in operation since August, had substantially increased the airport's capacity to handle the increasing passenger traffic. The terminal building's nine air bridges, which would be used for carrying passengers to and from planes, considerably improved the efficiency of airlines. This would be a boon for passengers having to catch connecting flights.


Four of the air bridges will be able to accommodate the 555-seater double-deck Airbus A380 and other super-sized planes.

Hlahla said Acsa's next big project was the construction of an R8,1bn terminal next to OR Tambo Airport.

Acsa bought the site, presently vacant land, from Denel for R606m last week. The new building would have its own domestic and international check-in facilities, said Hlahla.

This is one of those I will believe it when I see it. This past July it took over 3 hours just to get checked in. It was all due to the laziness of the SAA employees. They only had one position open to check in and they finally opened a second when several of us went and complained to a supervisor but you could tell they were not happy that they actually had to do some work. After checking in it took only about 20 minutes to get there gun control, security and passport control. Then had to run to catch the plane.

quote:

you could tell they were not happy that they actually had to do some work

The last time I flew SAA, that seemed to be the attitude of 80% of the cabin crew.

Not much different from United