Transit passengers are missing flights in Joburg after queueing for hours

Incoming passengers’ experiences of 3-4-hour waits at understaffed biometric capturing system checkpoints at OR Tambo International Airport, are giving SA a bad reputation overseas.

Comair CEO Erik Venter said the airlines in his stable were "constantly having to re-accommodate" international passengers who missed connecting flights.

Venter also told Radio 702 on Wednesday morning that the Department of Home Affairs‚ while aware of the issue‚ appeared to be doing nothing about it.

"Everyone is speaking to Home Affairs‚ including the minister of tourism himself‚" said Venter‚ who added that "they say that they have budget constraints and they don’t have enough staff to man the desks".

"It’s actually becoming quite severe because people who are coming in from foreign flights are ending up standing in the queues for so long that they end up missing their connecting flights‚" he said.

"So a lot of the tourists who are flying on to Victoria Falls or Cape Town or other parts of the country end up having to be re-accommodated on different flights because they just can’t get through the queues."

Venter said that these passengers are the "visible cases"‚ but more problematic was the perception the delays created abroad.

"We are getting quite a bad reputation overseas with the tour operators and the travel agents who are actually telling people about this and we don’t see how many people end up deciding not to come to SA."

The biometric system‚ which captures travellers’ fingerprints at SA’s ports of entry‚ was introduced by the department in April 2015‚ but was rolled out in earnest in June this year at 65% of Home Affairs counters, at terminals for arrivals and transit passengers.

Compounding the problem was the confusion over the requirement for foreign visitors to travel to SA with unabridged birth certificates for their children‚ said Venter.

"We’re still turning people away‚ still turning families away who arrive without them. They were supposed to amend these regulations about a year ago and all that they’ve done is say that it is at the immigration officer’s discretion as to whether they allow people through with or without the unabridged birth certificates. So basically the requirement is that you better have one with you‚" he added.

Venter said a task team had been set up last year to address these issues‚ but so far "nothing has come of it".

"Every tourism body in the country is on this thing‚ we’ve got the airline association‚ we’ve got Satsa [South African Tourism Services Association]‚ we’ve got the minister of tourism … we’ve been after [Home Affairs] Minister [Malusi] Gigaba to get this solved‚ but we’re making no progress‚" he said.

TMG Digital