South African Airways allegedly took eight days to report a Cape Town fuel emergency to the civil aviation authority, well beyond the mandatory 72-hour requirement, prompting calls for a Parliamentary inquiry into aviation safety oversight.

The Democratic Alliance has requested an urgent hearing before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport following the delayed reporting of fuel emergency incidents involving SAA flights SA313 and SA327 at Cape Town International Airport.

According to the DA, the airline failed to notify the South African Civil Aviation Authority within the required 72-hour timeframe, raising questions about SAA’s safety management culture and regulatory compliance.

Chris Hunsinger, DA spokesperson on transport, said the delayed reporting reinforces a broader pattern of weak oversight and regulatory failure within South Africa’s aviation sector.

“The concern is not simply the number of incidents, but the pattern underlying them. Repeated failures, reporting delays, and questions around transparency point to deeper structural problems within aviation oversight and accountability,” Hunsinger said.

The DA has identified multiple incidents involving SAA over recent years, including the February 2021 Alpha Floor near-stall incident at OR Tambo International Airport, a 2022 fuel contamination incident on a flight from Accra to Johannesburg, an unsecured aircraft ramp incident, violations involving international airspace procedures, and an October 2024 turbulence incident that injured cabin crew members.

The party also cited allegations involving pilot licence fraud and the recent Cape Town fuel emergency and Alpha Floor incidents.

Hunsinger said the DA is particularly concerned about an apparent conflict of interest created by SACAA investigating entities such as SAA that operate under the same departmental authority.

“Public confidence in aviation safety depends on independent, transparent, and credible oversight,” he said.

The DA will request that the Portfolio Committee summon SAA, SACAA, Air Traffic and Navigation Services, and the Department of Transport to account for the eight-day reporting delay, SACAA’s oversight of entities under the same departmental authority, and ATNS’s ongoing systemic failures in airspace and navigation management.

The party noted that ATNS currently has 326 suspended instrument flight procedures.

The DA highlighted that SAA has received more than R40 billion in government bailouts between 2018 and 2023, whilst serious questions remain regarding operational accountability, governance, and passenger safety.

“South Africans cannot be expected to continuously fund an airline while confidence in aviation oversight continues to erode,” Hunsinger said.

The Portfolio Committee on Transport has not yet responded to the DA’s request for a hearing.

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