Management at Cape Town International Airport says all critical systems have been restored following a power outage that affected inbound and outbound flights on Sunday.
Flights were unable to depart or take off as the outage affected runway lights, airside fire and rescue and navigation services.
ACSA Regional Manager, Mark Maclean says a total of 15 flights were affected.
“Firstly, it’s appropriate to apologize to all those who are inconvenienced by the incident last night, that occurred and of course, what caused it. We experienced a major fault on one of our main cables on the airfield and that fault was large enough to, unfortunately, cause damage to some critical infrastructure,” says Maclean.
A couple who traveled from Mauritius to Cape Town and who were affected by last night’s power outage at Cape International Airport have described the experience as scary.
The outage affected runway lights and navigational aids.
Airports Company of South Africa Limited (ACSA) says the services were returned in the early hours on Monday.
Hilary and Dave Badger say their flight was redirected to Johannesburg last night where they had to wait for four hours without being able to disembark.
“We sat at the airport in Johannesburg for four hours in the plane like hostages kept on the plane and then eventually, they told us that power was on again then we flew back, got here at four in the morning instead of nine last night,” says Hilary.
Video: Cape Town Airport – Flights resume after power outage: