SAA to scale down flights
South African Airways (SAA) will scale down capacity due to travel disruptions and restrictions caused by the coronavirus.
President Cyril Ramphosa announced preventative measures on Sunday when the government declared a national disaster.
Ramaphosa announced a travel ban and urged all South Africans to limit domestic travel.
The scaling down comes after the flag carrier cancelled several international and domestic flights.
"Certain flights that have 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 demand to the extent possible."
"Where feasible, we will consider options that include cancelling and merging flights," says Tlali.
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The airline says the decision comes after the recent developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The ministry of health announced last night that close to 85 patients have tested positive from the virus. On Sunday the President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a travel ban on high-risk countries starting from March 18 this year and urged South African not to travel to high-risk countries.
"For the period 17 until 31 March 2020, SAA has cancelled a total of 162 flights. Of these, 38 are international and 124 are regional (destinations on the African continent) flights," says Tlali.
At the same time, the airline is continuing 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 combatting the spread of the Coronavirus.