The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global airline industry with restrictions on travel forcing air companies to halt their operations. Recently, Dubai-based international airline company, Emirates announced that its flights from South Africa will continue to be suspended until April 15, 2021.
The announcement comes in line with the government’s directives to bar passengers that come into the UAE from South Africa. For now, passenger flights in Johannesburg will operate as EK763, but outbound passenger services on EK 764 will remain suspended. Furthermore, passengers who in the last 14 days have been to South Africa will not be allowed on any Emirates flights that are heading towards Dubai.
On its official websites, Emirates mentioned that it regrets any inconvenience caused to passengers and have suggested affected customers to contact their travel agent or the airline’s contact center for rebooking their tickets. The website added that Emirates is looking forward to recommencing its services based on the situation, until then it will continue to work closely with all authorities in this regards.
Emirates has been gradually restarting its global routes after the pandemic led to a closure of international borders and grounding of passenger flights last year.
This is not the first time the Dubai-based airline has suspended its operations. Last month, Emirates had halted all flights to and from Nigeria. However, it has also touted plans to resume certain operation elsewhere, one example being its plans of resuming four-weekly services to Orlando, Florida, starting June 2nd, as a way of expanding its US network.
With the inclusion of Orlando, Emirates will effectively be serving more than 60 weekly services between 11 US destinations which include Boston, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), Chicago, Seattle and Washington D.C. Prior to this, Emirates had revealed the resumption of its direct service between Milan Malpensa and New York JFK International Airport starting 1st June 2021.
Source Credit: https://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/emirates-says-flights-from-south-africa-will-remain-suspended-until-april-15-1.1617610603273