South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled nearly all domestic, regional and international flights scheduled for Friday, 15 November and Saturday, 16 November 2019 in order to minimise disruption to passengers that will result from industrial action in South Africa.
From Australia, SA281 departing on the 15th of November from Perth to Johannesburg will still operate. Due to the planned strike action, SAA’s services from Johannesburg to Perth will not operate on 15 and 16 November. This means that the returning services from Perth to Johannesburg as SA281 on 16 and 17 November have been cancelled.
Tim Clyde Smith, Regional General Manager – Asia Pacific said “SAA’s Perth to Johannesburg route is successful for the airline in profit and contributes to the economies of both countries because of our strong customer support and relationships with the trade across Australia and New Zealand.
“This is front of mind for us and we must meet our own local key objective of minimising the impact of disruptions for our valued customers and travel partners. SAA staff are working around the clock to do this and reaccommodate passengers on affected flights. We cannot do this without keeping partners and customers informed. ” Continued Clyde-Smith.
The cancellations follow an announcement by the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) that their members will embark on industrial action from Friday morning.
SAA attempted to dissuade the unions from embarking on industrial action by providing firm commitment dates to SAA’s offer of 5.9%. Discussions are continuing to resolve the wage matter at the time of issuing the statement.
Passengers are advised that unless alternative arrangements are in place, customers are requested not to go to their departure airports during the disruption.
Only flights operated by South African Airways will be affected. All flights operated on partner airlines, including SA Express, Mango, SA Airlink and all codeshare partners, including flights operated by our Star Alliance partner airlines. These flights can be identified by their flight numbers and will operate as normal: SA 1000 – 1999, SA 2000 – 2999, SA 7000 – 7999 and SA 8000 to 8999.
SAA will operate flights from selected ports in its network on Friday 15 November 2019 back to SAA’s base, OR Tambo International Airport. Regional flights, which will operate on Friday morning, will return from Maputo (SA147), Lusaka (SA067), Harare (SA025), Windhoek (SA073), and Accra (SA210).
International flights, which will operate on Friday evening, will return from Frankfurt (SA261), New York (SA204), Munich (SA265), Hong Kong (SA287), Perth (SA281), and London (SA235).
The airline will assess the situation on an ongoing basis and customers and travel partners will be kept informed of all operational developments.
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