Airlink is likely to take over the services of SAA’s Johannesburg-Brazzaville (capital of the Republic of Congo) route, says Airlink MD and CEO, Rodger Foster.
This follows ongoing discussions between Airlink and SAA around some of the national carrier’s loss-making routes – and the possibility of Airlink operating some of those routes.
“I can comfortably say that Brazzaville is one of the routes on Airlink’s radar screen and, in all probability, Airlink will be providing the services to Brazzaville in the near future,” Foster told eTNW.
SAA has confirmed it will introduce network changes on the domestic and regional segments of its route network.
Airlink is already designated to fly to Brazzaville, says Foster, and other destinations will follow shortly. “There are several other destinations – particularly in central and West Africa – that Airlink could operate in terms of our franchise relationship with SAA,” he says.
The general theme, says Foster, is that certain central African and West African destinations do not make sense for SAA, and these will most likely be served by Airlink. “SAA will not be rationalising all routes within these regions as we understand that several routes remain sustainably viable for SAA,” Rodger said.
Asked whether the reports suggesting SAA could cut its Malawi flights were true, Foster said: “Malawi routes, as we understand, are sustainably viable for SAA. There are no conversations under way [in that regard].
“What I can say is Airlink has applied for the rights to fly to several routes that SAA will most likely no longer be operating, and there are central and West African routes that are the perfect fit for our new Embraer E190 AR aircraft. This aircraft in itself is an excellent fit for the size of these markets and it has the required range capability and operational performance. So it makes every sense for us to take on the servicing of the routes where it doesn’t make sense for SAA.”
Airlink will not fly to Brazzaville – or any other route it takes on from SAA – as long as the national carrier flies there, says Foster.
“We would serve these routes as a franchisee of SAA and it wouldn’t make sense for us to operate franchised services while SAA is there. This logic applies to other routes as well,” he concluded.
