South African Airways (SAA) aims to operate all international flights departing OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday 17 and Monday 18 November 2019

South African Airways (SAA) is pleased to announce that it is aiming to operate all international flights departing from OR Tambo International Airport, with effect from Sunday 17th November 2019 and from London Monday 18th November. Customers booked on these services should report to OR Tambo International Airport and London Heathrow, as normal.

The airline has however, extended the cancellation of all domestic and regional flights scheduled for Sunday 17 November and Monday 18 November 2019. This operational decision is aimed at minimising the impact of disruptions for the airline’s customers. SAA has further worked with its sister airline Mango Airlines to re-accommodate as many customers as possible travelling on domestic services.

This may mean changes in timing and aircraft types, but aims to ensure that SAA’s customers reach their intended destination with minimal disruption. Customers traveling to destinations in the regional market (points on the African continent) will be re-accommodated on Airlink a partner airline of SAA and other airlines where possible. However, it will not be possible to re-accommodate all customers.

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.

The news follows South African Airways announcement (on Wednesday 13th November) that the airline had made a limited number of cancellations to its services. These included SA234 from Johannesburg on 15th and 16th of November and the SA235 departing from London on 16th and 17th November. South African Airways is now aiming to resume operations from Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport from Sunday 17th Nov and from London Monday 18th November.

For those passengers impacted, customers are requested not to travel to their departure airport unless in possession of a rebooked itinerary. In order to minimise the impact on customers, SAA is proactively rebooking customers and providing various options. The UK Call Centre handling customer rebooking has extended its hours to assist passengers and will open on Saturday 16th November and Sunday 17th November between 10:00 and 15:00. As call volumes are very high, we urge customers only to contact SAA in the event they wish to rebook on another airline for immediate travel in the next two days.

The UK passenger call centre number is 0208 576 5500.

Customers can also visit https://www.flysaa.com/de-traveladvisory for the latest information.
Assistance will be provided to ticketed passengers holding a South African Airways ticket. All affected flights will have a UN status and will appear on your urgent queue, please ensure that you manage your queues.

Please visit https://flysaatrade.com/uk/news/ for key information:

• SAA customers may be re-protected onto any other IATA carrier within 24hours of the strike action
• The ticketing process for SAA (083) Tickets and involuntary reroute endorsement
• Route and corresponding Carrier Support for SAA as per IATA Resolution 735D and other conditions.

You may also call our UK Sales Support team 0208 576 5555 Option 2 (Mon-Fri).

These cancellations followed 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. South African Airways are putting their customers first, and regret the inevitable inconvenience that these cancellations may cause. SAA will spare no effort to work jointly with the labour unions to find solutions that accommodate the employee demands, safeguard the business and return operations to normal. SAA has presented a revised offer to the NUMSA and SACCA unions.