Nigerian carrier Air Peace has announced that flights to and from Johannesburg will be suspended from 22 August owing to visa processing delays, the rising price of jet fuel, and “worsening forex”.
Air Peace has been operating scheduled flights to South Africa since December 2020. Travel disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with threats of flight suspension as recently as May have troubled Air Peace’s South African operations.
“We hereby inform the flying public that effective from 22 August 2022, our Johannesburg flight operations will be suspended till [sic] 8 October 2022,” Air Peace said via Twitter on 8 August.
“This development is regretted but has become inevitable due to the delayed issuance of South African visas to travellers, worsening forex crunch, and the increasing cost of aviation fuel as well as its scarcity.”
Air Peace’s online booking platform confirmed the suspension of flights to and from Johannesburg, with no flights availability during the period.
“However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved in the next 60 days,” noted Air Peace.