Fort Lauderdale, FL (March 30, 2020) – South African Airways (SAA) has announced that after careful consideration and to comply with South Africa’s national 21-day lock-down to contain the spread of COVID-19, the decision has been taken to temporarily suspend all commercial operations at the SAA offices throughout the world until April 16, 2020. This action is also a result of previous announcement to suspend domestic flights in the South African market until April 17 and the regional Africa and international markets until May 31, 2020.

As a result, South African Airways’ North America Regional Office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and all commercial departments have temporarily suspended operations and will remain closed until April 16, 2020.

For those customers holding unused tickets issued on South African Airways, there is no need to worry and no need to contact us now. All customers holding an unused ticket will be able to use its full value as a credit for travel on SAA-operated flights over the next two (2) years) for travel up to March 25, 2022. SAA will permit routing changes, as well as, a free name change, if the original customer no longer wishes to travel.

“We recognize that this is a challenging period for everyone with the unprecedented impact on the global travel and tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Todd Neuman, executive vice president for South African Airways in North America. “This is part of SAA’s commitment to offer support during these uncertain times and provide flexibility to encourage customers to reschedule their travel to Africa at a later date.”

For information on South African Airways Flexible Travel Policy, customers and travel advisors that require assistance with rebooking travel for future dates, should visit : https://www.flysaa.com or https://www.flysaa.com/flight-suspension-policy .