By Louis Ibah
Passengers who ply the Abuja – Johannesburg route on South African Airways may have to wait a little longer as the airline is delaying its flight resumption into the re-opened Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for another two weeks.
“We just held a meeting after the long Easter holidays on our Nigerian operations, especially our flights between Abuja and Johannesburg and we resolved that we won’t resume on that route until after two weeks,” said a source close to the airline.
“There are some technical issues we first have to sort out; once that is done, and it could take at least two weeks, then we will be back to Abuja,” the official who preferred to remain anonymous added.
In aviation parlance, once an airline says it is having a technical issue that has marred its operations into a particular airport, it is taken that the aircraft usually deployed on such a route either has problems or that it is being used to service another route.
South African Airways is one of the major international airlines that operates into the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. But following the six-week shutdown of the Abuja airport for the rehabilitation of its runway, South African Airways had opted to suspend its Abuja operations rather than fly into the Kaduna International Airport provided as alternative airport by the Federal Government.