Saudi Arabia: Saudia announced launch date for flights to South Africa!

The national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, Saudia, has announced a launch date for its non-stop service to South Africa. The carrier, which last flew to South Africa in April 2020, is set to operate four weekly flights between Jeddah International Airport (JED) in Jeddah and OR Tambo International Airport (JNB) in Johannesburg on board a state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Reservations are already open for travel between 01 December 2023 and 29 January 2024.

• SV449: Jeddah 01:20 > 07:35 Johannesburg on Tuesdays and Fridays
• SV447: Jeddah 13:50 > 02:05 Johannesburg on Saturdays and Mondays
• SV448: Johannesburg 08:50 > 16:45 Jeddah on Tuesdays and Fridays
• SV446: Johannesburg 21:40 > 05:35+1 Jeddah on Saturdays and Mondays

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Saudi Arabia: Saudia to launch flights to South Africa!

The national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, Saudia, has announced the launch of direct flights to Johannesburg in South Africa later this year. The route development, which also includes the introduction of new services to Beijing (China), Birmingham (UK) and Kano (Nigeria), follows the airline's signing of an agreement with the Saudi Air Connectivity Program (ACP) and is in line with the program's objective of enhancing the Saudi Arabia's point-to-point air connectivity and its reach to target international markets. Saudia has sofar not published a launch date for the new routes. We'll keep you posted!

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South Africa: Travellers from four new countries have been granted visa-free status! [update]

update (08 October 2019): According to an article on businesstech.co.za, South Africa's government recently also waived visas for travellers from Cuba, Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe.

South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has announced that nationals from four of the seven countries he granted visa-free status during his Budget Vote speech in July 2019 are now able to travel to South Africa without visas. Effective today (15 August 2019), travellers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand no longer require a visa to visit South Africa for holidays, conferencing and business meeting visits. Visa waivers for Ghana, Cuba and Principe and Sao Tome will be implemented after negotiations with these countries have been concluded. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is scheduled to complete these negotiations by the end of August 2019 and the implementation will follow soon thereafter. We'll keep you posted!

South Africa waives visa requirements for seven countries including New Zealand! [update]

update (12 July 2019): South Africa is currently in talks with the seven countries regarding the implementation date for visa-free access to South Africa as well as reciprocity. According to BusinessTech, talks are expected to be concluded by September 2019. We'll keep you posted!

South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has announced on the occation of the Home Affairs Budget Vote 2019 that South Africa has scrapped visa requirements for seven countries, including New Zealand. According to the Minister, the Deparment of Home Affairs (DHA) will with immediate effect enter into discussions with these seven countries about how a visa-free regime will work. The following countries will be able to enter South Africa, visa-free:

• Qatar
• United Arab Emirates
• New Zealand
• Saudi Arabia
• Cuba
• Ghana
• Sao Tome and Principe

New Zealanders now need visa to travel to South Africa! >>