Fikile Mbalula. Image: GCIS

South Africa will permit air travel from four main airports from Monday as the nation eases lockdown measures put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Limited domestic flights will be allowed for business purposes, and passengers must ask for authorisation based on their reason for travel, transport minister Fikile Mbalula said in a televised briefing on Saturday. Flights will begin operating from OR Tambo International and Lanseria airports in Johannesburg, and from Cape Town and Durban in phase one of the plan.

South Africa is loosening rules first put in place late March that shut most of the economy and threatened the viability of its airlines.  — Reported by Roxanne Henderson, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP