CemAir faces major setback as booking system crash costs millions

South African airline CemAir is facing a significant financial blow after a major crash of its online booking system, which has left passengers frustrated and the company counting potential losses of up to R20 million.

The technical failure began on Tuesday this week, crippling the airline’s online reservation capabilities and severely impacting both domestic and international operations. Passengers attempting to book flights were either met with error messages or were unable to complete their transactions altogether.

Booking Chaos and Frustrated Passengers

For days, CemAir’s customers have faced persistent issues with booking tickets online, checking flight schedules, or managing their itineraries. The issue has not only resulted in a drop in bookings, but also prompted a flood of customer complaints on social media and via customer service hotlines.

Travellers, many of whom rely on the airline for regional travel, expressed concern over the uncertainty surrounding upcoming flights and the lack of clarity in communication during the outage.

CemAir

“It’s been incredibly frustrating. I couldn’t book a return ticket, and no one could tell me when the system would be back online,” said one customer from Johannesburg who wished to remain anonymous.

Financial Toll and Uncertainty

CemAir has confirmed that the estimated losses are still being calculated, but early projections suggest the figure could reach between R15 million and R20 million. This includes not only missed revenue from ticket sales but also operational disruptions, including manual processes and call centre overload.

“We’ve seen a significant hit to our revenue stream,” said CemAir CEO Miles van der Molen. “While it’s difficult to give an exact figure at this point, the losses could very well be in the tens of millions of rand.”

What Caused the System Crash?

The exact cause of the crash is still being investigated. According to Van der Molen, the initial assessment from their third-party IT service provider indicated a potential hack. However, this was later revised to point toward a virus infection within the system.

“The initial reports from our service provider were that their system was hacked,” Van der Molen explained. “They later updated that and said a virus brought down the system – we aren’t entirely sure at this stage. The primary objective is ensuring the system is restored fully.”

Recovery in Progress

Despite the challenges, CemAir has made substantial progress in restoring its systems, announcing that about 70% of the platform is back online. The company expects the entire booking system to be fully functional by the end of the weekend, pending no further complications.

“We’re working tirelessly with our service provider to make sure all systems are operational,” said Van der Molen. “Once we are confident that everything is stable, we will begin a full forensic review of what went wrong and how to safeguard against similar incidents in the future.”

Long-Term Repercussions

While the short-term financial loss is concerning, industry analysts believe the longer-term damage could be reputational, especially if customers lose trust in CemAir’s digital reliability. In an age where online booking is essential to airline operations, any disruption can erode consumer confidence.

CemAir, however, says it remains committed to transparency and customer support during this time. The airline has urged affected passengers to contact their support team directly for manual assistance with flight bookings and itinerary changes.

“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and frustration,” Van der Molen said. “Our priority is to ensure this never happens again.”