Air Peace announces suspension of flights into Johannesburg, as delayed issuance of South Africa visa continues
Air Peace has announced the suspension of its flights between Nigeria and Johannesburg in South Africa.
In a statement issued by the airline on Monday evening, it attributed the decision to suspend flights into the Southern African country to what it called the delayed issuance of South African visas to Nigerian travellers.
Other reasons given by the airline included; the skyrocketing price and scarcity of aviation fuel and the unavailability of forex.
While informing that the suspension takes effect from August 22, 2022, the airline however expressed optimism that it will resume operations from October 8, 2022, after the South African government must have addressed the visa issuance problem.
The statement from the airline partly read: “We hereby inform the flying public that effective from August 22, 2022, our Johannesburg flight operations will be suspended till October 8, 2022.
“This development is regretted but has become inevitable due to the delayed issuance of South African visas to travelers, worsening forex crunch and the increasing cost of aviation fuel as well as its scarcity.
“However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days. Hence, our willingness to resume operations on the October 8, 2022.”
The airline however assured passengers whose flights are affected by the development of the option of rescheduling their flights to fly before August 22, 2022 or from October 9, 2022 or ask for “a refund via [email protected] and our team will attend to it promptly.”
While apologizing for the inconveniences the decision may have caused, the airline promised to keep the public updated even as it hoped for an improved situation.
The suspension of Air Peace from the Johannesburg route may create serious hardships for many Nigerian travelers residing in the African country who constitute the largest travelers on the route.
