South African Airways - Order 2024-5-28

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection has determined that South African Airways (SAA) failed to provide timely refunds to passengers for flights to and from the United States that were cancelled or significantly changed by SAA in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 (Section 41712) and 14 CFR Part 259. Since March 2020, the Department received over 400 complaints alleging that SAA failed to provide timely refunds after cancelling or significantly changing consumers’ flights to or from the United States. SAA took more than 100 days to process many refunds but was unable to provide the Department information regarding the exact length of time that it took to process the thousands of refund complaints or requests that it received directly from passengers. SAA has acknowledged that it did not begin to process the majority of its backlog of outstanding refund requests it received throughout the pandemic for flights cancelled or significantly changed by the carrier until approximately May 2021. This order directs SAA to cease and desist from future similar violations of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 and 14 CFR Part 259 and assesses the carrier $300,000 in civil penalties.