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SAA and Comair flights affected after ‘irregular findings’ at SAAT
Flying in South Africa is going to be a bit more chaotic than normal on Tuesday, thanks to SAA Technical (SAAT).
According to a press release issued by South African Airways (SAA), a number of its flights have been cancelled, and the airline may operate “an amended flight schedule”.
This comes after an audit was performed of SAA Technical, the company’s separate technical entity.
According to a News24 report, the audit by the SA Civil Aviation Authority uncovered “irregular findings” at SAAT.
The affected aircraft are therefore required to undergo “compliance verification” before they can resume service.
SAA announced on Tuesday that four local flights had been cancelled, namely:
- SA 313 from JNB to CPT – passengers will be moved to SA 317 (flight complete, arrived 20 mins late).
- SA 326 from CPT to ORT – passengers will be moved to SA 332 (currently in the air, performed by an Airbus A340-300).
- SA 543 from JNB to DUR – cancelled.
- SA 550 from DUR to JNB – cancelled.
None of SAA’s international flights are affected at present.
SAA PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT❗️ pic.twitter.com/Bp7D5iSoLx
— SAA – South Africa (@flysaa) October 22, 2019
SAAT performs maintenance on a number of aircraft for local airlines.
Kulula, British Airways flights also affected
Comair, which operates Kulula and British Airways in South Africa, was also affected by the drama.
#kululaNotice Operational Update. 22 October 2019, 10:32am. Flight status: https://t.co/Mbll7KemmA pic.twitter.com/hM8sxdwKck
— kulula (@kulula) October 22, 2019
A third of its flights had been affected, it announced at 10am on Tuesday.
A statement issued an hour earlier, it confirmed that four affected aircraft had been released back into service.
It expected the full fleet to return to service by “tomorrow morning”.
#kululaNotice Operational Update: 22 October 2019, 9:20am. Check your flight status here: https://t.co/Mbll7KemmA pic.twitter.com/IO5bVJe4Wf
— kulula (@kulula) October 22, 2019
Comair failed to provide a list of flights that had been affected.
Feature image: an SAA Airbus A340-200 in Johannesburg in 2003, by Bob Adams via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)
