Confusion around delays in South Africa granting visas to Nigerian visitors has led Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace, to announce that it will be suspending its flights to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo from August 22 until October 8, 2022.
Toppled with the worsening foreign exchange crunch, and the price hike of aviation jet fuel, the Nigerian carrier along with other member airlines of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) association, last month issued a warning to passengers over Nigeria’s worsening aviation fuel scarcity, saying it was “taking a toll on its flight operations, causing some delays and cancellations”.
“However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days. Hence, our willingness to resume operations on October 8, 2022,” airline management announced in a statement.
Meanwhile, the airline said passengers affected by the cancelled Johannesburg flights could reschedule to fly before August 22 or from October 9, 2022, or request a refund.
The airline announced the resumption of flights to Johannesburg from Lagos last October, following flight suspension due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown.
The Airline operates 2x weekly flights between Johannesburg and Lagos using E190-E2, A320-200, and B777-300 equipment to cover the 4,511-kilometre service which currently has no direct competition with an elapsed time of six hours in both directions.
At its peak in 2014, Lagos – Johannesburg route recorded over 462,000 seats which have seen a significant decrease over the years to 179,000 seats in 2019.
