South African Borders Opening Soon!

Finally!!  Our borders to officially reopen October 1, 2020!  This surely the most welcome news in an industry that has been one of the first and hardest hit by the COVID-19 lockdown.  We certainly need this renewed hope! 

We realize that the way people will travel will change in this new COVID world we find ourselves in and that we will have to adapt and be flexible to accommodate the changing demands.

It is one thing for us to open our borders but still another to set the wheels in motion.  At least it is a step in the right direction allowing airlines to plan again their services in and out of South Africa.  Travel to and from certain countries deemed to be high risk may be restricted.  Arriving passengers will be required to present a COVID-19-free certificate that is less than 72 hours old.  Anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 will be required to stay in quarantine until they test negative for the virus again.  Travellers will be asked to download the COVID Alert South Africa mobile app and must comply with certain requirements for the duration of their stay in South Africa.

We expect that travel to SADC countries, Mauritius and Zanzibar would probably be the first to recover.  What we would see is probably a demand for more point to point options as travellers might want to get to their destination as quickly as possible and not spend time at different hubs.

We are ready to welcome again the world to our beautiful country as well as making it possible for South Africans to be reunited with loved ones, get back and into business and again travel to their favourite destinations.

Currently, South Africa has not been added to most ‘green lists’ around the world and though permitted to travel outside the country, we might still have a hard time finding countries that will allow us to visit.  Despite meeting delisting criteria, South Africa remains red-listed by some countries.  The methods used to determine ‘red zones’ or lists of those to quarantine, vary from country to country and mostly they will look at the infection rate over the previous 7 days to arrive at an estimation of active cases.  For the UK infection levels must be below 20 new cases per 100,000 and in Germany 50 new cases per 100,000.  According to recent data South Africa is reporting around less than 20 cases per 100,000 per week.  We remain though on the UK and Germany’s red lists.  Obviously, nothing can be guaranteed and even though you might find yourself in the green zone now, the situation can suddenly change should your weekly numbers increase again.

It is still estimated that we will only see a full recovery possibly in 2023.

For now, we are positive, excited, and looking forward to assist our corporate clients in making business travel easy and painless and to assist our leisure clients in making all their travel dreams come true! We are there for you!

Let us start to rebuild our economy and fly the WORLD!

This is how Delta Air Lines ensures that they are ready for you when you are ready to fly!

https://cdn.hubilo.com/feed/2429/videos/MP4_5f5a1abd3c5b994d0729b121-1600088229237.mp4