UPDATE | Flights resume at Cape Town International Airport after ...

Flights resumed at Cape Town International Airport on Friday after a fuel spillage on the airport's main runway disrupted operations on Thursday.

The spill was discovered on Thursday at about 2pm when an aircraft developed technical problems. The main runway was closed and this caused flight delays for about 600 passengers booked on flights into and out of the Mother City.

“After the removal of the aircraft and an inspection of the runway, teams started a cleanup operation yesterday [Thursday] afternoon. Additional cleaning and degreasing activities were completed overnight on a larger area of the runway,” Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said.

Cape Town International Airport acting regional manager Shaheed Regal said the clean-up took hours as teams needed to ensure the runway was safe for operations. 

“Acsa is governed by stringent international safety and environmental standards and the cleanup was critical,” Regal said.