#Airlink upgrades service to Richards Bay from turboprob to jet aircraft

(Posted 05th December 2023)

Airlink, Southern Africa’s premier privately owned airline, is boosting its Johannesburg – Richards Bay service with the introduction of jetliner flights on the route. 

The enhanced service, which commences today, will see a significant increase in capacity with the introduction of Airlink’s comfortable, quiet and reliable 74-seat Embraer E170 jetliners replacing the 29-seat Jetstream 41 turboprop aircraft.   

With the introduction of a jet service, flight time on the route is reduced by up to 30 minutes.

“Richards Bay is crucial to South Africa’s economy and it requires reliable and efficient air services, like Airlink’s, to connect the city’s businesses and those dependant on it with other markets and economic centres.   We are also keeping the promise we made to our partners, the City of uMhlathuze and the KwaZulu-Natal government, to deploy larger aircraft on the route once there was sufficient demand,” said Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.

With immediate effect, flights on the route will operate on this schedule:

Travel on Airlink flights can be planned, booked and managed on www.flyairlink.com, on the FlyAirlink smartphone appand through travel agents.  

Airlink was established in 1992 and is Southern Africa’s premier privately-owned regional airline.  Airlink serves these cities and other destinations throughout Southern Africa as well as Madagascar and St Helena Island.  It offers worldwide connections through its partners, which include many trusted and well-known inter-continental brands and its FlyNamibia franchise.  

In addition, Airlink has launched its innovative “Skybucks” frequent flyer rewards programme.

Airlink has consistently been South Africa’s most on-time airline over the last two years, with its fleet of more than 60 modern jetliners achieving a 92.69% average on-time performance so far this year.

Airlink is an International Air Transport Association (IATA) member and accredited under its safety audit programme.