South African Airways (SAA) is busy with repatriation services for those South Africans who are stranded in Mauritius. This comes after the Republic of Mauritius announced on Saturday, November 27 that it will suspend all flights from its list of countries with effect from Monday, November 29 until Friday, December 31.
SAA advised all customers that “the scheduled flight SA190 from Johannesburg to Mauritius on Sunday, 28th November 2021 is now cancelled. This flight will now operate to Mauritius as a ferry flight.”
Also read: Mauritius to suspend flights from several countries from Monday
The airline went on to say that apart from their service to Mauritius, their local and regional schedule will remain unaffected.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely, always putting the health and safety of our passengers first. Customers may contact the SAA Call Centre on 011 978 1111, or alternatively, send an email to [email protected] or reach us on Twitter at flysaa_care for assistance,” SAA said.
SAA CEO, Thomas Kgokolo have also urged South African island travellers to remain patient and apologised for the inconvenience caused by unforeseen travel restrictions.
Message from our CEO, Thomas Kgokolo. Cancellation of flight SA190 to Mauritius this morning, We apologise for the inconvenience caused by unforeseen travel restrictions. #FlySAA pic.twitter.com/JqgFs7Dm8A
— SAA – South Africa (@flysaa) November 28, 2021
One traveller, who is currently in Mauritius also told Cape {town} Etc that passengers were reportedly refused access to leave the airport.
“Huge Riots by passengers – we are now being quarantined for 14 days. Other airlines who flew in were allowed to leave Mauritius international Airport.
“All who travelled had to be vaccinated, everyone had [to have] negative PCR tests to be able to fly,” she said.
In the meantime, repatriation flights from the United Kingdom to South Africa will also resume on Tuesday, November 30. A spokesperson for the UK High Commission, Clayson Monyela indicated that British Airways will resume direct flights to SA from Tuesday, with the first flight to London on Wednesday.
Info received from @ukinsouthafrica.
– @British_Airways will resume direct flights to #SouthAfrica from Tuesday (30 Nov) with the 1st flight to London on W/day. It’ll be 1 daily flight to Cape Town & ORTIA.
– Virgin flies 3 times a week into ORTIA. They haven’t stopped theirs.— Clayson Monyela (@ClaysonMonyela) November 28, 2021
Also read:
SANParks expects mass cancellations following the latest travel ban
Picture: Cape {town} Etc gallery