Airlink is likely to take over the services of SAA’s Johannesburg-Brazzaville route, says Airlink MD and CEO, Rodger Foster.
This follows ongoing conversations held between Airlink and SAA wherein certain of the national carrier’s loss-making routes – and the possibility of Airlink operating some of those routes – are under discussion.
“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 Tourism Update.
SAA has confirmed it will introduce network changes on the domestic and regional segments of its route network, and the planned network changes will see the introduction of its airline partners to ensure that no SAA customers will be disadvantaged or have their flight services interrupted on any of the routes that SAA cuts. The changes relate to the replacement of SAA’s own metal service on certain routes and not total withdrawal, the carrier said in a statement.
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,” Rodger confirms, although he remains coy on which routes in particular.
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,” Foster says.
Asked whether the reports suggesting SAA could cut its Malawi flights are true, Foster said: “Malawi routes, as we understand, are sustainably viable for SAA. There are no conversations underway [in that regard].”
He admitted he knows which routes are likely to be cut by SAA, but this is still a work in progress. Says Foster: “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,” he says.
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 says.
