South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has confirmed it will suspend its 3x weekly Johannesburg O.R. Tambo-Abuja service for the duration of runway works at the Nigerian capital city gateway.
The carrier said in a statement the suspension would run from March 6 until the airfield is formally reopened to commercial traffic.
“As a network carrier, we considered an option to fly elsewhere in Nigeria during the repair works [to Kaduna]," airline spokesman Tlali Tlali said. "However such an option did not prove viable for us given its implications on our network as it would impact on aircraft availability and connectivity for our passengers.”
Affected customers who have already booked tickets and those planning to travel to Nigeria over this time will be re-accommodated on SA060 Johannesburg to Lagos and SA061 Lagos to Johannesburg.
Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) and Air France (AF, Paris CDG) recently confirmed that they, too, would be suspending their respective Abuja operations during the airfield's downtime. Though British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) and Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) have yet to make an official statement, both have now closed ticket sales for Abuja flights.
