Darkness Hits OR Tambo (Johannesburg) International Airport

Yesterday afternoon things started off great arriving at the airport early having 40 minutes to kill having a cup of coffee before our check in counters opened up. This was 3.30 pm and things went down hill rather quickly so little did we know that would be our first and last hot drink in the terminal.

Around 3.45pm the electricity went down and being South Africa you would expect businesses to be prepared for power cuts. The coffee shop was our first clue as their payment machines were off line and this was now cash only. The check in desks had back up power but this was only temporary running off a battery.

Luggage being checked in could not go on to the conveyor belt and had to be left by the counter manually. They informed us this would be gathered in groups and taken to the plane. The problem with a power cut is no one knew how long the down time was going to be. One person mentioned the airport had enough stored power to run the airport for 4 hours on required machines.

Security and customs check and I wonder what happens when the back up power runs out for the x-ray machines and computers. You can see below shops were literally left in the dark.

Above is a view from the front entrance of the only lounge open and luckily yesterday I paid in advance. One of the perks of Revolut is free airport lounge access which in this case is $50 saved. At first the lady did not want to let us in, but unlike everyone else we had already paid first. The card payment machines were also off line. There was a grand total of 7 people in the lounge and the only food available was salads, bread and various cakes. I took other pictures of the lounge, but they never came out very well as there was only 1 light available.

The power was eventually restored at 7pm when we were about to board our flight not knowing if there would be delays. The previous flights were delayed with indef next to the flight numbers and guess that means indefinitely.

Our flight thank fully left on time and this photo was taken literally 30 seconds after the power was restored.

I always presumed an international airport had an independent supply away from the grid if needed. Airports need to be self sufficient as they are a key infrastructure and security risk. Airports make a fortune not only from the airlines, but every business in this airport pays a fee which is 30 percent of turnover. This is turnover and not profit and why your $10 cheeseburger costs $25. They have no excuse to not have their own electricity supply which they own and control. A 4 hour back up is not a solution and for me this is a big worry.

Surely the airport should be independent from the grid from a safety and security view point. The airport should never be functioning on back up power knowing how many people travel through this facility daily. This being a key infrastructure in SA tells me they should be independent off the grid because if anything serious happened to the grid then this airport shuts down after 4 hours.

Next weekend sees the G20 dignitaries arriving and if this happened next week it would be hilarious. On the way to the airport it was hard to ignore the new additions like SA flag gardens next to the road. I just wish the government had invested in the airport instead of stealing all the funds.

Posted Using INLEO