British Airways extends suspension of all its South African flights

The scrapping of the flights is in compliance with the United Kingdom’s ban on scheduled flights between the two countries, which was implemented in December 2020.

British Airways does not intend to operate scheduled passenger flights for another two months, though this could be subject to change. Travelnews reports that BA announced the extension of its flight suspension to trade partners and travel agencies.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHTS SUSPENDED AGAIN

British Airways has cancelled its flights between London and Johannesburg or Cape Town until 16 April.

This is not only to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infections in the UK, but to curb the importation of the new SARS-Cov-2 variant which is prevalent in South Africa.

REDUCING SPREAD OF NEW COVID-19 VARIANT

The flight ban has been in place for well over a month already to limit the number of South Africans travelling to the UK.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced immediate restrictions on travel and flights from South Africa in a press conference on 23 December. Besides the flight ban, the British government has recently imposed mandatory hotel quarantines for all passengers arriving in the UK.

COSTLY HOTEL QUARANTINES DETER UK TRAVEL

The UK government looked to Australia and New Zealand for tips on how to limit the spread of COVID-19. Both countries have stringent entry requirements with compulsory self-paid mandatory hotel quarantines for all arriving passengers from outside of their countries.    

The UK has drawn up a list of 33 nations which appear on its “red list”. These are high-risk countries whose nationals are required to complete mandatory hotel quarantines at a cost of about R 30,000 per visitor.

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