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(Constantine Johnny, Getty)
- Airlines were forced to suddenly adjust their flight schedules Tuesday morning, to cope with an extended curfew in South Africa.
- Passengers who were unable to legally get to airports in time for morning flights found call centers overwhelmed as they tried to find out what was going on.
- Airlines advise keeping a close eye on their schedules, with the possibility of imminent cancellations.
- You should have about an hour to get from your home to the airport to catch your first flight every day. If you can’t, you will have to join a queue at the cell center.
- For the last flight, you will have an hour to get home, although there is some leeway if you have problems.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
There was chaos and many, many angry passengers Tuesday morning as airlines scrambled to deal with the implications of an extended curfew in South Africa, without warning.
Airlines shifted morning flights to later hours across the board, as the court order for South Africans not to leave their homes before 06:00, announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa only on Monday night, came in in force.
But by midmorning it was still not entirely clear which flights would be leaving and when, with customers complaining of overwhelmed call centers and a lack of communication about their specific situations.
Hi. We are very sorry. As you can imagine, our call center is awash with calls. Can we help here?
– FlySafair (@FlySafair) December 29, 2020
There was confusion at airports as well, despite already limited flight schedules.
@ easy they are really playing with us. Our flight was supposed to leave at 05:55 and we are still waiting to be transferred to another flight. There is no communication, people are simply sent to different queues where nothing happens
– WIP (@Tshili_MakMak) December 29, 2020
Only a handful of flights were canceled as operators consolidated flights, but industry experts warned that more – and potentially sudden – cancellations could be expected over the next two weeks, below the adjusted Level 3, even for flights from the noon.
Taken off guard, airlines can only advise passengers to keep an eye on their websites and social media for updates.
Please be patient with us during this time and keep an eye out for our SMS and social media pages.
– FlyMangoSA (@FlyMangoSA) December 28, 2020
In what will likely be an industry-wide approach, Airlink said it would delay all of its flights until 08:00 or later in the morning, and ensure that there were no arrivals after 20:00 every day.
At the current speed of inspection and processing at airports, that allows passengers one hour of legal travel time between 06:00 and 07:00 to reach an airport, and enough time to check in and board a flight. before departure.
In addition, landing at 8:00 p.m. offers one hour to leave the airport and travel home before the curfew begins at 9:00 p.m.
When flights are delayed or passengers run into other problems that have not been caused by themselves, law enforcement officials are supposed to consider the specific circumstances if they find someone away from home after they curfew begins.
But there is no provision, in law or in practice, to help those who live more than an hour from an airport.
They will simply have to rebook their flights, through call centers where their tickets cannot be adjusted online, the operators said.
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