Mpumalanga mess

May 8, 2009

Charlotte York and I just spent three-and-a-half hours at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport – an airport with a thatched roof and only one departure gate. We were waiting for our 40-minute flight from Nelspruit back to Joburg, when about 15 minutes before our scheduled boarding time, we heard thunder, saw lightning, and the sky opened up and let loose a torrent of rain. It was abundantly clear that our flight would not be leaving on time.

All the other passengers at our gate (the one gate) were understandably concerned and there was no one addressing the situation. Then, a voice came over the loudspeaker and announced, "All passengers on SA flight 8846 to Johannesburg, please come to the ticketing and sales counter." Then, as expected, all hell broke loose.

More than 100 passengers rushed the ticket counter, where a South African Airways representative tried to speak in her very softest voice and whispered something about cancellation, weather and buses. Then, all the passengers started asking each other what was going on, but no one could hear the explanation. Charlotte York and I were very confused and wondered why they didn't just announce the information over the loundspeaker.

We pushed our way to the front of the mob and learned that our plane was grounded in Joburg due to weather and that the flight would be cancelled. Furthermore, the next flight out would also be cancelled and they were trying to order a bus (for 20 passengers) to drive people to Joburg (a six-hour drive). More chaos ensued as passengers scrambled to get their names on the bus list.

Other passengers ran to the rental car counters to try to rent vehicles to drive themselves to Joburg, but not all were successful in getting cars. Charlotte York and I decided to try to hire a car to drive us to Joburg, and when that led to a dead end, we decided to look into hotels for Nelspruit.

As she called hotels, I went back to the ticket counter to get us booked on the first flight out tomorrow morning. By this time, many people had cleared out, either on buses or by car. Several very kind South Africans and one American living in Nelspruit offered us rides or otherwise tried to help the obvious Americans out. It was very, very nice, but we hadn't really figured out what our plan was, so we forged on.

While I was trying to get ourselves booked on another flight for tomorrow, I overheard one of the agents say something about a plane flying out of Joburg after all. I stopped the woman who was helping me, as she was booking our tickets, and asked her about this other option. She said, "Yes, we have a plane coming over tonight. Would you rather I book you on that flight back to Joburg?" DUH!

Anyway, we ended up waiting for several hours, but a plane did make it to Nelspruit and we got on a flight to Joburg, arriving 3.5 hours late, but arriving nonetheless! It was such a ridiculous amount of chaos that could have been very easily avoided, but I guess that's how things are done here. And since the majority of the passengers on our flight found another way to get to Joburg (or resigned to spend the night in Nelspruit), our flight was comfortable and not full!