SAA received clearance on Sunday to commence operations between SA and Zimbabwe and resumed flights, the airline said in a statement.

“Since the grounding of SAA’s aircraft in Harare yesterday, the airline prepared and submitted all required documentation in compliance with the instruction from the Zimbabwean authorities,” the statement rread.

This comes after SAA flight SA 025 was prevented from departing from Harare airport in Zimbabwe on Saturday in what appears to have been a tit-for-tat move by the government of Zimbabwe.

Tourism Update understands that an Air Zimbabwe aircraft was inspected in Johannesburg on Friday by the Civil Aviation Authority. The flight did not have its operating permit on board and was grounded as a result by the CAA. SAA was forced to cancel operations between Johannesburg, Harare and Vic Falls.

On Saturday morning, the Zimbabwean government appears to have retaliated by preventing SA 025 from taking off. SAA later cancelled flight SA 022.

Tlali Tlali, SAA head of media relations, told Tourism Update on Saturday: “The authorities imposed this restriction on us this morning only. SAA has been serving this market for more than 20 years and a requirement to have a foreign operators permit was never a requirement until this morning.”

SAA has resumed flights between South Africa and Zimbabwe.