[imagesource:here]

Driving to Plett is so last year.

You slog your way past hundreds of trucks, one by one, and then pull in at a petrol station to grab a pie.

Bam, back of the queue and the process begins anew.

Flying into Plett is the way forward, but there is one major stumbling block. Back in August, Plettenberg Bay Airport lost its commercial status due to a failure to address outstanding issues that came from inspections conducted by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).

That meant the closest place to fly to was George Airport, which is almost 100 kilometres away.

As the headline suggests, today is a rather important day, with the airport due for an inspection. If all the boxes are ticked, CemAir flights will resume on November 12.

The privately-owned commercial airline has forked out around R1 million to upgrade the airport where necessary, as Bitou Municipality had basically proven too inept to handle this on its own.

Here’s Business Insider SA:

Plettenberg Bay airport will undergo a SACAA inspection on Friday, with [CemAir CEO, Miles] van der Molen confident that enough has been done to approve commercial operations.

CemAir aims to recommence flights to and from Plettenberg Bay on 12 November. This is later than the airline would’ve liked, cutting it fine for the busy summer season.

“We were hoping to have these findings addressed a month ago… so we’re behind where we should’ve been at this point, but we’re desperately trying to meet those targets,” says Van der Molen, adding that the long-term goal was on servicing the boom in semigration, particularly from Johannesburg, along the Garden Route.

Semigration is so hot right now, with the Garden Route proving very popular.

That’s not to say the West Coast (‘Weskus beskus‘) is being ignored, with Paternoster a firm favourite.

In a joint statement released last week, CemAir and the Bitou Municipality said they were confident the airport would be approved for commercial operations.

IOL below:

“Fire Fighters are finalising their training and will be establishing a fire training area at the airport. Following an emergency coordination exercise involving multiple emergency service providers across Bitou, we believe all requirements will have been met.”

“The CAA has been requested to perform the required follow up inspection on Friday 29 October 2021. Should all regulatory requirements be satisfied it is expected that the airport license will be restored shortly thereafter. This will pave the way for commercial airline flights to return to the airport.”

There you have it.

From November 12, you may well be able to fly in and fly out.

You miss out on a cracking pie stop or two, but I reckon you’ll be just fine.

[sources:businsidersa&iol]