El Al Airlines on Friday announced that it is suspending all flights to South Africa as of April 1.

The announcement was made hours before the International Court of Justice at the Hague issued an interim ruling on South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

Currently, El Al operates up to twice weekly nonstop flights to Johannesburg.

“Israelis don’t want to fly to South Africa,” an El Al spokesperson was quoted by Reuters as saying.

“They are cancelling flights and planes are pretty empty… We understand it’s the situation because it was different before. The fact that the Israelis don’t want to go to South Africa but do want to go to other places helps us decide that we’re pausing that route.”

However, the official El Al statement only mentioned security concerns. “Due to the current security situation, there has been a significant decrease in demand among Israeli travelers to various destinations, including Johannesburg in South Africa,” the statement said.

“In light of this, starting at the end of March 2024, we will suspend the activity on the Johannesburg-Tel Aviv line, in order to adapt the target range to demands.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)