East London Airport has received a lashing from feisty pensioner Ellen Ettinger, 75, for snipping the time allowed for motorists in the drop-and-go zone to only five minutes.
Ettinger has reported the airport to both the public protector and the human rights commission.
She told the Daily Dispatch the airport was was being unreasonable, if not irrational.
“It’s a nightmare. The five minutes is insane and extremely nerve-wracking.
“This has nothing to do with my age, but there has just been no consideration of all the things that need to be done prior to leaving the airport.
“Just this morning [Wednesday] I was there again dropping my son and I absolutely refused to get inside the boom gate, so he had to walk inside to get a trolly and walk back to get his luggage before he could go back inside the airport to check in and board,” she said.
Airports Company SA corporate affairs manager Senzeni Ndebele said the airport had instituted the time limit due to congestion at the site.
“In the past, East London Airport gave the elderly and people with disabilities an allowance of 15 to 20 minutes at the dropand-go zone,” Ndebele said.
“Unfortunately, this was abused by those who did not fit the criteria.
“This created much congestion at the drop-and-go zone.
“In a bid to relieve the congestion, we introduced a fiveminute restriction across all our regional airports.”
Ndebele said allowances would be made on a “case-bycase” basis for the elderly or people with disabilities.
“We would appreciate them contacting our parking team who will then make the necessary allowance,” he said.
Ettinger said it was “unsatisfactory” that the elderly and disabled had to make special arrangements in advance in order to drop people off or fetch them from the airport...