Qatar Airways (QR) has signed an interline agreement with FlySafair, currently South Africa’s largest domestic airline. This will provide QR with 10 domestic connections in South Africa, including Port Elizabeth, East London and George. This is good news for tourism into South Africa, as Qatar’s Doha hub is a super-modern centre for global aviation, and the…
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Airlink continues expanding and enhancing its regional network. The airline will augment its South Africa – Mozambique network with scheduled services from Jo’burg to Pemba, Vilanculos and Beira. This follows the lifting of travel restrictions that curtailed travel between the neighbouring countries. The services provide travellers with connectivity with Airlink’s new services linking Johannesburg with…
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Yesterday (October 19) government revised the list of high risk countries based on a risk categorisation model – and it now includes another major source market for inbound leisure tourism, Germany. The wave of frustration that swept through the inbound industry was well-expressed by an anonymous DMC on the Watasapp group Tour Operators and DMCs:…
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Virgin Atlantic is set to restart flights from London Heathrow to Johannesburg from October 18 and Heathrow to Cape Town from December 10. The airline plans to operate four flights a week between Johannesburg and London Heathrow from October 19 and to increase to a daily frequency by the end of the year. Flight VS449…
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Yesterday, October 14, Airlink announced the start of three new regional services. The privately owned airline has been steadily and purposefully rolling out flights in the region, some new routes for the carrier, others a resumption of old routes, since cross-border air travel restarted. The carrier’s new scheduled passenger service between Maputo and Johannesburg reconnects…
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Since the start of 2020 there have been 44 reported cases where COVID-19 transmission is thought to have been associated with a journey by air (including confirmed, probable and potential cases). These statistics, published by Iata, seem to indicate the low incidence of inflight COVID-19 transmission. “The risk of a passenger contracting COVID-19 while on…
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Airlink relaunched its scheduled passenger services between South Africa and Eswatini and also its services to Lesotho on October 12. This follows the lifting of travel restrictions between the neighbouring countries due to COVID-19. “Airlink is looking forward to re-establishing the vital connections that sustain the all-important trade, business, tourism and family ties between nations,”…
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Ethiopian Airlines has resumed commercial flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town and has introduced free COVID-19 Global Insurance Cover for all passengers travelling with the airline. The cover is automatically included with every ET ticket for international flights operated and booked from October 1, 2020 until March 31, 2021. It is effective following the first…
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Lynda Buitendach, National Projects Manager for AMPATH told ASATA that AMPATH is in the process of setting up a specific ‘Travellers Resource Page’ on its website, details of which will be shared with ASATA Members in due course. “This will contain what travellers need to do to have their COVID-19 test performed, the special travellers’…
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The Department of Health has, with immediate effect, rolled out antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 at all ports of entry in South Africa with immediate effect. Media liaison for the Department, Dr Lwazi Manzi, pointed out that while this did not replace the required certified negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result (not older than 72 hours), this test…
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