Airlink’s new logo of a sunbird
adorning the full size of the tail being applied to its 50 Embraer jets marks a
decisive step in the company’s history.
Previously the bird only flew over the top half of the empennage,
inserted into the tail design of South African Airways (SAA), as Airlink had
been operating as a franchise under the roof of the national carrier from 1997.
However, in 2020, the partnership ended and a new age has begun. For the
first time in its over 20-year history, Airlink competes in its own right and
branding. It does so not as an inexperienced start-up, but rather from a
position of strength.
According to the number of flights offered, about 210 a day on 63
routes, with destinations served in 14 countries, it is now Africa’s
second-biggest airline after Ethiopian Airlines, ranking ahead of Royal Air
Maroc and Kenya Airways. Counting the number of seats offered, it ranks
third behind Ethiopian and Egypt Air.
Before the pandemic, Airlink carried 2.2 million passengers in 2019
still as part of SAA’s network, while in 2022, over three million customers are
expected. Quite remarkable for a regional carrier with over 50 jets in its
fleet all of which are made by Embraer and none has more than 98 seats.
This achievement is in no small
part thanks to efficient leadership over the years by its co-founder Rodger
Foster. Private shareholders, among them Foster himself owning 23 percent of
shares, ensured that Airlink has been constantly profitable for over two
decades until the pandemic hit.
One of the reasons is Airlink operates a tailor-made network of
destinations that see actual demand, rather than an overblown intercontinental
system such as SAA did, and serves them with smaller aircraft that are easier
to fill.
“Our objective is to be sustainably viable,” says CEO, shareholder, and
co-founder Rodger Foster in an interview with Airlineratings.com in
Johannesburg.
Right now he pursues this objective in a new setting. “Of course it is a
challenge, after 30 years, to start as a new brand in our own right, as since
1997 we have been identified as SAA because of our franchise partnership,” says
the youthful-looking 67-year-old. “This is a new chapter for us and it is
exciting because we got our own brand and we now got relationships with all the
world’s biggest airlines.”
As a member of IATA and IOSA-safety-audited, Airlink has inked
code-share deals with Emirates and United Airlines and in addition, there are
interline agreements with 19 global carriers, among them with British Airways,
Virgin, Delta Air Lines, Air France/KLM, and Lufthansa.
Instead of joining fare wars, it can’t win on such contested South
African domestic routes as Johannesburg to Cape Town with currently seven
competing brands, Airlink pursues more lucrative international routes – if it
can get the respective traffic rights.
This remains a constant problem, highlighting the ongoing fragmentation
of African aviation and the lack of opening up of markets. “That’s why Africa
only accounts for two percent of worldwide air traffic, there is only lip
service being paid to aviation liberalization in Africa so far,” contends
Rodger Foster.
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