Following a decision to cancel its scheduled Wednesday flights to Blantyre amidst safety concerns, South African Airways (SAA) has expressed “optimism” that issues will be speedily addressed and that it will resume its service to the Malawian city.
Amongst other measures, the national carrier has dispatched a team from its head office in Johannesburg to work with authorities on the ground in Blantyre to implement interventions recommended by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and ensure the stipulated safety requirements are met.
Last week, following a base inspection of SAA operations in Malawi, SACAA issued a Level 1 audit highlighting “a severe non-compliance that poses serious safety risk and requires the licence-holder to adequately address the findings, failure of which necessitates immediate enforcement action by the regulator”.
In response to the SACAA audit, SAA took the decision to ground its flights scheduled for Sunday and Monday. Yesterday (Tuesday), citing “safety issues” at Blantyre’s Chileka Airport, the airline cancelled the Wednesday flight as well.
SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the airline was “encouraged” by the urgency displayed by authorities in resolving the issues, and added that the national carrier was optimistic that the service between Johannesburg and Blantyre would soon be reinstated.”
We are grateful to SACAA and appreciate their efforts in working with us to ensure the safety of our operations for the benefit of our customers and crew. We intend to maintain the prescribed operating standards and will not hesitate to take all necessary steps in the interests of safety,” said Tlali.
