After an incident on Monday last week in which South African Airways (SA) canceled its evening flight from Johannesburg to Harare, Zimbabwe citing
poor lighting on runway 05/23 at Harare International Airport, the South African national carrier has now confirmed that it has changed its night flights to Harare to an earlier departure time. The SA024 flight to Harare that is normally scheduled to depart OR Tambo at 19h40 has been changed and now departs at 16h20 and arrives at 18h00. The change came into effect on October 9.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe's Chief Executive Officer, David
Chawota, disputed complaints made by
South Africa Airways pilots and said there was nothing wrong with runway lighting at Harare International Airport:
"We have several airlines that are flying into Harare at night and they have not complained," he said. "Why is it that it is only South African Airways pilots that are complaining? In any case, our lighting has five beaming levels and these can be adjusted on request."Source [Bulawayo24]
At present time, Amadeus still reflects a 1940 departure time for SA024 from Johannesburg to Harare.
