South African Airways will suspend all domestic flights from tomorrow until April 16th.

The decision came after the South African government announced a nation-wide lockdown for 21 days aimed at combatting the spread of Covid-19. 

Last Friday, the flag-carrier announced the suspension of all intercontinental and Africa regional flights until the end of May.

A new updated re-booking policy has also been launched, allowing passengers to move bookings until March 2022.

This new policy goes beyond the industry norm, the airline said, where tickets are usually valid for 12 months for international travel. 

For passengers, a summary of the new rebooking policy can be found here, while for members of the travel industry, further ticketing information can be found here.

South African Airways’ suspension to operations was in response to a government travel ban aimed at stopping the transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Following the declaration of the state of disaster in South Africa, the government announced a travel ban and issued regulations, which introduced certain measures aimed at combatting the spread or transmission of the virus. 

Among other things, the regulations said that crew from high risk countries shall be subject to medical screening and quarantined for 21 days. 

“South African Airways supports this national effort as announced by the government, to retard, contain, manage and disrupt the rate of transmission of the Covid-19 and apologises for any inconvenience to its customers travel plans further to the global pandemic,” concluded a statement.

Coronavirus

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