The South African government has apologized to more than a thousand soccer fans that had missed the semi-final between Spain and Germany on Wednesday after chaos at King Shaka Airport prevented several full passenger planes from landing.
FIFA also indicated this afternoon that they will consider reimbursing fans who had missed the game due to the congestion chaos.
FIFA spokesperson Nicolas Maingot says the football body will definitely look at the cases of fans affected by flight problems.
Attendance at Moses Mabhida Stadium was 1 800 below capacity for Spain's 1-0 victory.
"As government, we regret the inconvenience caused to all those fans...," Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said on Thursday. "Transport has generally been moving smoothly since the start of the FIFA World Cup," he said."It’s now all systems go for the closing ceremony and the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at Soccer City ...
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The South African government has apologized to more than a thousand soccer fans that had missed the semi-final between Spain and Germany on Wednesday after chaos at King Shaka Airport prevented several full passenger planes from landing.
FIFA also indicated this afternoon that they will consider reimbursing fans who had missed the game due to the congestion chaos.
FIFA spokesperson Nicolas Maingot says the football body will definitely look at the cases of fans affected by flight problems.
Attendance at Moses Mabhida Stadium was 1 800 below capacity for Spain's 1-0 victory.
"As government, we regret the inconvenience caused to all those fans...," Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said on Thursday. "Transport has generally been moving smoothly since the start of the FIFA World Cup," he said."It’s now all systems go for the closing ceremony and the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Sunday."
The South African Airports Company (ACSA), Air Traffic and Navigation Services and the aviation section said they will continue cooperating to make sure this does not happen again over the weekend.
Five plane-loads of football fans were delayed before the game between Germany and Spain. Four of the planes were from Johannesburg and one was from Cape Town.
Earlier today government blamed private aircraft operators who took up the parking space reserved for the big passenger planes despite a request that they move their planes to the old Durban International Airport. King Shaka International Airport had to handle 250 aircraft yesterday instead of its normal load of about 100.
ACSA said this afternoon they will tow planes over the weekend if pilots refuse to move them. "We are going to be more forceful on Sunday. If aircraft refuse to move we will tow them away," ACSA operations manager Bongani Maseko told Sapa. "I am not blaming the VIPs. The people who caused the problem were the people flying the aircraft," he said. He explained that the pilots only agreed to move their planes when ACSA threatened to take legal action against them, but by then it was too late.
A German man was arrested at the Port Elizabeth Airport last night after he allegedly assaulted a crew member in anger when his flight was turned back from Durban.
“We can confirm that a German male who boarded the plane to Durban yesterday was arrested for allegedly assaulting one of the SAA Express crew members,” police spokesman Brigadier Marinda Mills told News24.com.
There were also reports that upset fans had to be restrained on another flight when they tried to talk to the pilot about the delays.
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