BAs new South African partner….

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  • openfly
    Participant

    Having lost Comair as it’s codeshare partner in South Africa some months ago, life hasn’t been good for connections for BA and it’s products, plus South Africans being unable to use their Avios on domestic, and Southern Africa flights.
    It looks as though BA has signed a codeshare deal with Airlink, a respected local carrier.
    Good news all round.


    cwoodward
    Participant

    Good news indeed…..Airlink seem solid.
    Any news rea the brand? will they use BA branding I am wondering as in such a fractured market it would perhaps prove to be a strong asset for a mid market product.


    openfly
    Participant

    There hasn’t been any announcement of start date?!


    cwoodward
    Participant

    Looks like a strong partner.

    I have flown on them a couple of times and they seem to be well run -a decent experience

    They are now the largest airline now in SA and the third largest airline in Africa. They are concentrated in the south of the continent.
    As others have mentioned in the past they are a decent to fly with.
    They have an expanding network of over 60 routes across 50+ destinations. 18+ destinations in SA plus Mozambique-Zimbabwe-Uganda-Angola-Zambia-Lesotho-Zambia-Namibia and St Helena (once a week scheduled flight) with several destinations in most of these countries

    The fleet is young and perhaps they are the only sizable airline that is all Embraer with a fleet of 55 aircraft divided between 145s 28 190s 24 and 3 ERJ 190s (Information is contradictory but it seems that they may also recently have some 29 seater Jetstream’s.)
    The 2 larger models have a business class of (it seems 8 seats)

    From Wikipedia

    In 1995, SA Airlink officially launched on 25 March at a gathering of important guests, including Queen Elizabeth II. On 3 May 2017, Airlink became the first airline in history to make a commercial charter flight to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, landing a BAe Avro RJ-85 at the newly constructed Saint Helena Airport to pick up passengers stranded there when the island’s only link with the outside world, the British Royal Mail Ship RMS St Helena, suffered propeller damage.[10]

    No other commercial airliner landed at St Helena until 14 October 2017, when Airlink began history’s first scheduled commercial airline service to Saint Helena Airport, with an Embraer E190 with 78 passengers aboard arriving after a flight of about six hours from Johannesburg, with a stop at Walvis Bay, Namibia.[11] The flight began a once-a-week scheduled service between Johannesburg and Saint Helena.In 2020, SA Airlink changed its name from SA Airlink to Airlink. The change was made to distinguish the company as an independent airline. Airlink ended its 23-year old franchise agreement with South African Airways in the early part of 2020.
    n March 2022, Airlink committed to a commercial partnership with Federal Airlines, to operate it’s Lodgelink flights in the lowveld. The flights connect from either Kruger International or Skukuza to lodges within the lowfeld and Northern KwaZulu Natal. In September 2022, Airlink acquired a 40% stake and it seems control, in Namibian airline FlyNamibia for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will have FlyNamibia adopt Airlink’s livery and “4Z” flight designation.

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