Air Peace Suspends Flights To Johannesburg, Says Passengers Can Seek Refund

Air Peace said it has suspended flights to Johannesburg for over a month due to delay in issuance of South African visa and foreign exchange woes.

The airline said effective from August 22, 2022, its Johannesburg flight operations would be suspended till October 8, 2022.

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Passengers whose schedules are affected would be entitled to refund, the airline revealed.

The South African government introduced a new Visa policy in January 2022 and the development has caused backlog in processing visa applications.

Visa submissions previously went through Visa and Permit Facilitation Centres (VFS Centres) or through South African Missions.

But the new system allows visa applications to be processed through a centralised adjudication system which is aimed at achieving consistency and uniformity in the visa process.

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Air Peace said, “This development is regretted but has become inevitable due to the delayed issuance of South African visas to travellers, worsening forex crunch and the increasing cost of aviation fuel as well as its scarcity.

“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 the October 8, 2022.

“Passengers whose flights are affected have the option of rescheduling to fly before August 22, 2022 or from October 9, 2022. Passengers can also request a refund via [email protected] and our team will attend to it promptly.”

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