[imagesource:here]

If you were planning on jetting into Plett for a few days, then we have some bad news.

You’ll be slumming it like the rest of us and driving into town, because Plettenberg Bay Airport has now lost its commercial status.

The closest you can get is George Airport, which is almost 100 kilometres away, where all flights will now be redirected.

CemAir, which has operated flights in and out of the airport for seven years, has had to halt operations.

The decision, taken by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), means that no commercial flights will be allowed to operate from the airport.

More via IOL:

In a statement CemAir said records revealed that the reason for the suspension was failure to address outstanding issues that came from inspections conducted by the SA Civil Aviation Authority.

“Although written undertakings with specified time-frames were provided to the SACAA to address shortcomings, these undertakings were not met. Bitou Municipality had both a statutory and contractual obligation to correct the issues however has not done so and at the time of writing has made no commitment to address the issues,” read the statement.

Bitou Municipality has come under fire for its ineffectiveness, and has yet to appoint a mayor after Peter Lobese was axed back in April.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if somebody could step up and do to Plettenberg Airport what they’re planning to do to the Cape Winelands Airport?

The site has been dubbed “the Lanseria Airport of Cape Town” and is primed for development as it already manages several aircraft hangars for the storage and maintenance of private aircraft and helicopters, with plenty of room to expand.

Just ask Seth, who recently took to the skies from that very location:

 

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A post shared by Seth Rotherham (@realsethrotherham)

Our resident pilot..

He also snapped these shots:

We hear there’s plenty of talk among pilots about the joys of a Cape Winelands to Plett corridor.

If it means missing out on the terrors of overtaking trucks on the N2, sign me up, and something tells me we can’t rely on the Bitou Municipality to get the job done.

[source:iol]