South African private sector airline Airlink has acknowledged the decision of the Johannesburg High Court, regarding the carrier’s application against the State-owned South African Airways (SAA). Airlink was seeking to recover about R890-million from SAA, but the Court dismissed its application.

“Airlink respects the Court’s decision, it is after all the duty of the company’s leadership to explore every available avenue to recover the funds,” said Airlink CEO and MD Rodger Foster. “Meanwhile, we will continue to focus on growing Airlink as an independent, financially robust, commercially vibrant, competitive and sustainable airline.”

Airlink made the application to the Court last year. The R890-million came from ticket sales, through SAA, for Airlink flights, which took place before SAA went into business rescue (on December 5, 2019). Airlink, although a totally independent company, was, at that time, a franchisee of SAA.  

Subsequent to SAA entering business rescue, Airlink, which was founded in 1992, ended its franchise arrangement with the State-owned carrier. It then rebranded and relaunched itself with its own distinct and independent identity. For its success in doing so, it was recently declared the winner of the Africa and Middle East category in the 2023 FlightGlobal-Korn Ferry Airline Strategy Award.

In just three years the airline has created an entirely new route network, which now covered 45 destinations across South, Southern and East Africa, as well as Madagascar and St Helena Island. It has established partnerships with 34 airlines, and has code-sharing agreements with five of them, including some of the world’s major intercontinental carriers.

Today, it possessed a fleet of more than 60 Embraer jets, and operated more than 75 000 flights a year. According to Airports Company South Africa data, the carrier’s on-time performance consistently exceeded 95%.