SAA to resume domestic flights mid-June
Flights will only be between Johannesburg and Cape Town
South African Airways (SAA) said it would re-start domestic flights as soon as the government approved its operational readiness under Covid-19 outbreak.
In a statement, SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said SAA planned on retaining its domestic schedule between Johannesburg and Cape Town, with effect from mid-June 2020.
He said SAA was focusing on ensuring operational readiness to resume flights once permissible, which was expected to be reviewed on an ongoing basis afterwards.
Tlali also said SAA was cancelling all planned scheduled flights on regional and international services until the end of June 2020 with immediate effect.
“This decision has been taken as a result of the continuing global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Many restrictive rules and regulations still apply to civil aviation across the world.
“On this basis, it is not yet possible to resume operations beyond South Africa’s borders in a sustainable manner.”
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SAA chief commercial officer Philip Saunders said SAA was looking forward to serving customers once again.
“Our operational preparedness is underlined by the significant role the airline has played in global repatriations to and from South Africa and by our desire to serve the domestic market,” Saunders said.
SAA added that customers holding unused SAA tickets would be able to use their ticket’s full value as a credit for travel on any SAA service, up to and including 24 March 2022.
It said it would also permit a free name change if any individual customer no longer wished to travel.
This after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday that business travel would be allowed under level 3.
Dates of the resumption of flights have not yet been set as the sector’s Covid-19 operational readiness remains under government review.
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