The restriction on travel from many countries to and from SA as a result of the latest Covid variant is still playing havoc with flights and cargo movement and the scenario changing daily. Many airlines have still not confirmed their policy and schedules and rates are very volatile. We anticipate the changes and restrictions to create serious cargo backlogs and delayed movements and will, unfortunately, lead to higher rates as we are already seeing on export where rates are being upsold to secure space. We provide below an update just received in from Air Menzies which contains a summary of the situation this morning.
Please note most carriers are upselling rates due to reductions in schedules and capacity constraints.
LH – Operate as normal – Upselling on rates
QR – Operate as normal ex JNB & CPT – Upselling to Gold Rates, DUR – Cancelled
TK – All pax flights cancelled ex ZA. ( Monday freighters ex JNB dep 02h25 )
EK – JNB – EK762 01DEC21-31DEC21 __3_567 JNB DEP 1325 DXB ARR 2345 77WR FJY (CARGO ONLY), ( AXA – Express rates only )
EK – CPT and DUR – Cancelled
LX – Operating as normal
AF – Cancelled
KLM – Operate as normal.- Upselling on rates
SQ – Operating although two recent flights cancelled and unclear future plans from Singapore
EY – All pax flights cancelled.- Day 3,6 Freighter ex JNB
DT – Days 2 & 4 ( freighters ex JNB )
ET – Flights are still operating the same, added a Day 7 departure ex CPT.
UA – Daily ex JNB, Days 1,4,6 ex CPT.
DL – Ex JNB/ATL every Monday and Thursday, Saturday.
SV – Saudia Cargo – Ex JNB D1,4 & 7
MS – Flights cancelled
KQ – Operating as normal
MK – JNB-MRU weekly sectors MK852 on Wed, Thu, Fri and Sun from 29 Nov to 31 Dec 21 are pax-decommercialized and will operate as all-cargo only flights
BA- operating but have reduced flights by +- 20%