The management at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) has given the assurance that it is ready and able to handle domestic air passengers, now that the country has moved to Level 2 of the national lockdown, allowing domestic leisure travel. OR Tambo is owned and operated by the State-owned Airports Company South Africa.

“The entire airport community is preparing to welcome more passengers as people start to make bookings for leisure travel,” assured ORTIA GM Bongiwe Pityi-Vokwana. “The opening up of domestic air travel will have a positive impact on not only the airport but also the entire aviation sector. As with business air travel, we anticipate a gradual increase in demand at first. However, with spring approaching we expect an increase in passenger traffic.”

“Passengers who have not been inside an airport for months will find a range of measures in place that absolutely have to be followed to the letter,” she highlighted. “We hope that by now the public has grown accustomed to mask-wearing, sanitisation and hand-washing and physical distancing.”

These measures are focused on ensuring the health and safety of passengers and employees at the airport, and compliance is rigorously monitored. Because of these measures, it takes more time to move through the airport systems and procedures. So she stressed the importance of passengers arriving at least two hours before their flights are scheduled to depart.

“But once inside the airport you will still be able to buy refreshments and in due course some food outlets may also reopen,” she pointed out. “We expect other retailers may also begin to reopen their stores now that demand is returning. The measures applied by these stores will be the same as those used in malls and supermarkets.”

The period during which only business air travel had been allowed had enabled the airport to refine its processes and safety procedures, reported Pityi-Vokwana. “Passengers can have confidence that the air travel environment is safe from entering the terminal to picking up bags at the destination.”