Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is aware of the announcement by the Minister of Home Affairs, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, regarding the deployment of 40 additional immigration officials at Cape Town and O.R. Tambo international airports with immediate effect.
With international passenger traffic through the two airports showing strong growth, this is indeed a positive development, which we welcome. We believe this will go a long way into improving overall passenger processing and alleviate the pressure currently being experienced.
Also, the move will certainly improve overall customer satisfaction as the entire check-in and arrivals processing time will reduce considerably.
In 12 months to March 2005, O.R. Tambo International processed about 15 million international passengers while just above 6 million went through Cape Town International.
ACSA’s role is to provide required infrastructure and information with regards to traffic patters. We will continue to do so in a spirit of partnership, and in the broader interest of tourism, with the department of home affairs.
Furthermore, we are supporting the Department of Home Affairs with the training required around airport resource management system, which will help them manage passenger flow within the terminal. Also, the immigration officials will, together with ACSA staff and other stakeholder employees involved the passenger processing chain, undergo customer care training.
