South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled 162 flights for the period of 17 March until 31 March, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Of these, 38 are international and 124 are regional (destinations on the African continent) flights.
According to a statement released on Wednesday 18 March, the effects of the outbreak of coronavirus have led to travel disruptions and restrictions across the world, leading to the grounding of aircraft, releasing of employees and the cancellation of flights for many airlines.
“SAA is not immune to these realities,” it said.
SAA has reviewed its flight schedule and has decided to operate flights only under circumstances where its load factors and other business considerations weigh in favour of scheduling flights. However, certain flights that have not been negatively impacted more than others, are consequently cancelled.
“Notwithstanding the decline in demand, SAA continues to aggressively review its schedule to match capacity with the demand to the extent possible. Where feasible, we will consider options that include cancelling and merging flights,” said SAA chief commercial officer, Philip Saunders.
{UPDATE} – This is the official statement from @flysaa as the airline scales down its capacity due to #Covid19 #CoronaVirusSA #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/pRV6KOyHtS
— Arabile Gumede (@ArabileG) March 18, 2020
SAA to operate to and from areas unaffected by coronavirus
SAA will continue to provide a service on the domestic, regional and international networks for those passengers whose travel is essential and cannot be avoided. For the time being, the airline will continue to operate to and from destinations unaffected by travel restrictions aimed at combating the spread of coronavirus.
“Our priority is to assist those travellers wishing to repatriate to their home countries to do so as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Naturally, this includes South African citizens abroad wishing to return home,” explained Saunders.
Subject to the conditions set out in the travel ban announced by the government, SAA will also facilitate the transfer of qualifying passengers to or from the destinations it flies to, which have been classified as high-risk areas.
“We have updated our Customer Reservation Policy to help our passengers defer their travel plans where possible. To this end, we have offered our customers one free ticket change, in acknowledgement of travel restrictions that are not of our customers’ own making,” said Saunders.
Amended travel policy
Below is a summary of SAA’s amended travel policy:
- Must rebook/reissue ticket/s by 30 April 2020;
- Complete travel by 28 February 2021;
- Rebook same booking class with no additional collection and changes fees waived;
- Additional fare collection and taxes will apply to cases of seasonality change, but change fees will be waived;
- If the same booking class is not available, upgrade to the lowest applicable booking class. Additional fare collection and taxes will apply but change fees will be waived;
- One free change and ticket reissue permitted only;
- Tickets to be endorsed by COVID-19 SA FLT/DATE;
- Applicable to all fare types;
- Change of cabin will not be permitted;
- Change of routing will not be permitted;
- This travel advisory waives the 72-hour rule;
- This policy is applicable to South African Airways flights only and does not apply to Mango, SA Express and Airlink, issued on SA (083) ticket stock and not on separate tickets of other airlines;
- No refunds are permitted as part of this advisory;
- Other refunds are permitted according to the applicable fare rules;
- Previous no-show passengers are not eligible for this waiver; and
- SAA reserves the right to withdraw or revise the terms and conditions without prior notice.
