Airlines continue to reduce their services to piecemeal operations – this time South African Airways is joining the club with plans to suspending all international flights with immediate effect.
The airline will suspend services until 31 May 2020. The move is in line with South African governments travel ban in regards to Coronavirus/Covid-19/Human Malware.
International destinations affected include:
- Washington DC (USA)
- New York, JFK (USA)
- London, Heathrow (UK)
- Frankfurt (Germany)
- Munich (Germany)
- Perth (Australia)
- São Paulo (Brazil)
Regional destinations affected:
- Flights to the following destinations have been suspended as of 20 March 2020 until 31 May 2020:
- Accra (Ghana)
- Lusaka (Zambia)
- Harare (Zimbabwe)
- Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe)
- Windhoek (Namibia)
- Lagos (Nigeria)
- Entebbe (Uganda)
- Flights to Mauritius will operate until Saturday, 21 March 2020.
The move will reduce South African Airlines down to one route – a domestic route between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The airline has published its flight suspension policy at https://www.flysaa.com/flight-suspension-policy if you’re affected by the airline cutting its services.
The airline has suffered from a lack of passengers and was in the process of cutting up its network even before the Human Malware became a major issue.
With international flights vanishing, the regional network has collapsed, with the flights no longer commercially viable.
In Quotes
South African Airways Acting CEO, Zuks Ramasia said
“In support of efforts by government to deal with this pandemic, and in the best interests of our crew, passengers and the public, we have decided to suspend all international flights until 31 May 2020. It is all our responsibility, not just government, to curb further transmission of the virus. In addition, the increasing risks to our crew of contracting the virus including the possibility of being trapped in foreign destinations as a consequence of increasing travel bans cannot be ignored,”
“We also recognise the fluidity in the conditions we operate in and the need to respond to these changes with speed, to this end we commit to keep all our stakeholders abreast of any changes on an ongoing basis,”
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