South African Airways (SAA) flights to London were set to start operating again on Wednesday following a week-long grounding that has cost the carrier at least R84-million.
“The British authorities have reopened airspace. For as long as the airspace remains open, we will fly,” said SAA spokesperson Fani Zulu.
On Tuesday, SAA was forced to cancel a morning flight to London, which would have been its first flight since volcanic ash from Iceland caused a shut-down of European airspace.
“Yesterday [Tuesday] we had scheduled a specific flight that was going to leave at 10am but could not proceed.
Yesterday at about 11am, the British authorities reopened their airspace. As a result we will definitely go to London Heathrow for as long as the space is open,” said Zulu.
SAA normally has flights leaving for Heathrow in the evenings and the normal schedule would be followed on Wednesday if the airspace remained open.
Zulu said SAA had been forced to cancel at least 45 flights on three routes — London, Frankfurt and Munich — since last Thursday.
“It is costing us R14-million per day,” he said.
Based on the six-day shut-down since last Thursday, which calculates into an at least R84-million loss for SAA.
International news agencies reported that Asia-Pacific airlines were losing around $40-million a day in revenue, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.
The International Air Transport Association has put the loss for global airlines at $270-million a day. — Sapa