Air service apologises to irate flyers
‘Due to technical difficulties, alternative arrangements were made'
SA Express has issued a formal letter of apology to its passengers who were furious at being stranded at the Richards Bay Airport from Tuesday afternoon.
A large group of irate flyers, including foreign businessmen, had to be bussed to the King Shaka Airport in Durban after the carrier cancelled all flights between Richards Bay and Johannesburg from 2.30pm.
They arrived at OR Tambo nearly four hours after their planned landing time while visitors from Johannesburg reportedly only reached Richards Bay nine hours later.
The airline explained the inconvenience was a result of the planes for flights SA1208 and SA1214 experiencing ‘an unpredictable technical issue’.
‘Due to technical difficulties, alternative arrangements were made to transport passengers to King Shaka International Airport as well as accommodation where required,’ SA Express CEO Inati Ntshanga.
‘SA Express understands that its passengers are its most important investors and as such the company is of the firm belief that it cannot compromise the safety of its passengers.
‘The safety of our passengers and crew is always our top priority.
‘Unfortunately Tuesday’s incident was due to an unpredictable issue.
‘SA Express is taking this matter seriously and our engineers along with the cockpit crew and maintenance team are conducting a thorough audit to determine the cause of the technical problems.
‘We sincerely apologise to our passengers who were affected,’ Ntshanga said.
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