The ongoing ban on direct flights from South Africa to the UK has resulted in Virgin Atlantic extending the suspension of its South African services until the end of February.
“We are keeping a close eye on updates from the UK with regard to the imposed travel restrictions. There is, regretfully, currently no end date and, for this reason, we are adapting our schedule accordingly. We have cancelled flights until the end of February, and our intention is to restart as soon as these restrictions are lifted,” said Virgin Atlantic head of Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Liezl Gericke.
A trade notification relating to the Johannesburg-London and Cape Town-London routes advised, “Unfortunately we have taken the difficult decision to cancel some flights. Because of limited operations to these destinations, there will be no reprotection option available and these sectors will appear as UN.”
Forced into a similar position, British Airways has suspended flights to South Africa until the end of April, leaving UK nationals and residents with few options available to transport them back to the UK from South Africa.
