More suffering for passengers

The Friday evening SAX flight into Richards Bay was forced to return to Johannesburg after apparent hydraulic problems. Passengers were later flown to Durban and made their own way back to Richards Bay. ‘A colleague of mine was forced to take a taxi to Richards Bay and only got home at around 2am,’ said an irate businessman who called the Zululand Observer on Saturday. Local sentiment is increasingly angry against the sole operator to the City of uMhlathuze, calling for SA Express to give better service or close down. ‘We appreciate that the shoddy service is invariably due to poor aircraft maintenance or problems at the Johannesburg end, but the total disregard for Richards Bay passengers is unacceptable. ‘We now have another option, which many are already exercising, and that is to use the reliable King Shaka Airport,’ he said.