Air traffics services: Friday’s flight disruptions at OR Tambo not related system failure

JOHANNESBURG - Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) said Friday’s flight disruptions at OR Tambo International Airport are not related to a system failure, but are due to expired flight plans on the system.

Speaking to EWN, the ATNS' chief operations technology officer, Carel Gersback, said that it was due to disruptions with airlines because they were no longer departing as scheduled.

ALSO READ: National airports company confirms flight disruptions at OR Tambo International Airport

Gersback said the ATNS system experienced a glitch, which automates and processes flight scripts, resulting in a majority of the flight schedules being captured manually, creating additional delays.

However, he said the backlog has since been cleared and operations have resumed normally at the airport.

"So the backlong has been caught up with. It’s now just the schedule delay in terms of flights departing late at or tambo, is arriving late at the destination and arriving late at the or tambo, so that ripple effect will still be with us, but in terms of the backlog of flights that were delayed during the day, all of that has been resolved."