Pretoria - South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled its flights between Johannesburg and Washington DC via Accra, Ghana, due to bad weather, the airline said on Friday.
The bad weather is associated with “winter storm Jonas”.
“In the interests of safety of our passengers and crew, we took a decision to cancel both outbound and inbound flights between Johannesburg and Washington DC for travel on Friday, 22 January and Saturday, 23 January respectively.
“This decision was based on weather reports that predict extremely unfavourable conditions for take-off and/or landing in Washington DC,” SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
The national carrier operates daily between Johannesburg and two destinations in the US namely New York City and Washington DC.
“Whilst the service between Johannesburg and New York City remains unaffected, SAA is monitoring the situation on a continuous basis in liaison with the airports authorities in New York and will issue another travel advisory should the need arise,” explained Tlali.
Flights that have been affected on Friday are SA 209 from Johannesburg (JNB) to Washington (IAD) and SA 209 from Johannesburg (JNB) to Accra (ACC).
For Saturday, flights that have been affected are SA 210 from Washington (IAD) to Johannesburg (JNB) and SA210 from Accra (ACC) to Johannesburg (JNB).
Assistance will be provided to all ticketed passengers holding South African Airway’s Tickets (only) via any SAA call centre, City Travel Office or dedicated travel agent with several conditions.
According to the national carrier, passengers can rebook onto another SAA flight for a later date at no extra charge and subject to availability of the same booking class.
Other conditions are that a change of cabin will not be permitted and a change of routing will not be permitted.
“This policy is applicable to South African Airways flights only, issued on SA (083) ticket stock and not on separate tickets of other airlines. Tickets must be re-issued on/before January 26, 2016 and travel must commence on/before January 31, 2016.
Customers can contact SAA’s call centre on 011 978 1111 or 0860 606 606. Customers that are in the US can contact the call centre in Fort Lauderdale on 1 (800) 722 9675.
“South African Airways regrets any inconvenience occasioned by the flight cancellations. Customers are encouraged to visit SAA website www.flysaa.com for all flight updates and or flight cancellations.” – SAnews.gov.za
