After a seven months hiatus of international commercial flights, King Shaka International Airport in South Africa has resumed commercial flight operations. This comes after Government announcement of regulations allowing for resumption of international flights and international guests under specific conditions.
Terence Delomoney, General Manager of King Shaka International Airport, said: “this flight represented a watershed moment as we continue to ease the lockdown restrictions and open up our country and economy, whilst still maintaining strict health and safety protocols. It is testament to the aviation industry, all our staff and stakeholders who continue to work hard behind the scenes to enable us to achieve moments like this. We are hopeful that this marks the start of many international flights to be processed through King Shaka International Airport.”
Earlier, the South African Department of Home Affairs released a list of high-risk countries, whose leisure travelling citizens will not be allowed entry into the country. Other categories of people from these countries are allowed under special conditions, as it appears in the regulations and directions.
“We have been greatly encouraged by how local domestic passengers have taken to the skies. We want to emphasize that continuing to maintain a safe airport environment is our key priority. This is largely dependent on the attitude and behavior of our passengers, and if we could continue the success we have had on the domestic front into the international part of the operation, we will continue to build confidence and trust amongst our travelling public; and hopefully convert more of our non-travelling public into travellers.”
Historically, the KwaZulu-Natal province attracts visitors throughout the year for leisure and business, the resumption of international flights will help revitalize the tourism sector and the economy. Local hotels, tourism destinations and all public spaces are fully geared to applying the rules and protocols that will keep all travellers safe. “Since we resumed domestic flying a couple of months ago, we have applied a range of health and safety protocols with rigor and consistency. We are now very much accustomed to applying the rules and protocols, we ask our international visitors to familiarize themselves with the rules and protocols we use,” Delomoney noted.
According to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), all international passengers are required to do a COVID-19 test in their country of origin and present the negative test results document on arrival in South Africa. The test result must have been received no more than 72 hours before boarding the flight to South Africa. Should the traveler display any COVID-19–related symptoms or been in contact with an infected person(s), they will be expected to take a mandatory COVID-19 test.
This test will be at the traveler’s cost. If the COVID-19 test comes back positive, the traveler will be subjected to 10-day quarantine at a designated site. The accommodation at a quarantine site will be at the traveler’s cost. “King Shaka International Airport is calling on all passengers to be honest about their declarations, and anyone that maybe experiencing any symptoms should be protecting themselves and others, by not attempting to travel until they are medically cleared.
ACSA said masks are always compulsory, not only in the airports but also in all public environments. It is compulsory to sanitize hands when entering the airport. There are sanitization points at entrances and checkpoints spread across the airport. Physical distancing is required and enforced