South African government threatens to ban all Emirates flights
 

Remarkable development - there was a recent spat when EK started the 4th daily Joburg service. They were issued with a licence to do so by the SA Department of Transport but 2 days before the service started they retracted the permission. EK went to court and got an emergency injunction which allowed them to continue the 4th service.

This has since escalted to the point that the South African Minister of Transport has sent a diplomatic letter demanding that the UAE Minister of Economy present himself for a meeting in Pretoria on Monday 17 November, with the threat if he does not they'll pull the authority for all of Emirates flights to SA.

Now this is classic politician showmanship but the concern is that someone is going to lose a lot of face over this which could have some serious ramifications.

Rumours are that the Abu Dhabi airline is trying to link up with the ailing South african Airways and that this move by the SA government (100% shareholders of SAA) would create a situation which would open the doors to such a development.

This is going to be interesting.

It will all be sorted out 'under the table' and Emirates will carry on undercutting just about every other carrier on the route, and transporting whores and their clients to and from the hypocrit run hellhole in the desert.

I will be interested to see how this ends but I am pretty confident that it will all go quiet and nothing will have changed other than the bank balance of few ZA government officials.

since the UAE ban meat from ZA they should ban the UAE to fly there

It won't happen. How will all the government employees travel to their exotic destinations this holiday(paid by tax money)if EK stops flying out of SA? :ugh:

Minor error in the report in that it claims 14 weekly services DXD - DUR when is obviously only 7.