South African private sector airline Airlink has announced that it will restart scheduled flights linking Johannesburg with the iron-ore mining centre of Sishen in the Northern Cape province. The flights will resume on February 15.
“Airlink recognises the strategically important role that Sishen plays in our economy both as a mining town and sustaining jobs in the Northern Cape province, but also in generating valuable foreign revenue for South Africa through exports of iron-ore,” assured Airlink CEO and MD Rodger Foster. “We look forward to resuming our role in supporting Sishen and its community.”
At first, flights will be operated only on weekdays, with the exception of Wednesday. “We will commence with four return flights a week and we will add frequencies as demand on the route picks up,” he explained.
The flight times will vary between the days, as will the flight codes. On Mondays and Thursdays the Johannesburg to Sishen flight is coded 4Z 773 and takes off at 05h45 (arriving at 07h00), while the Sishen to Johannesburg flight is coded 4Z 778 and leaves Sishen at 17h40, reaching Johannesburg at 18h55.
On Tuesdays, however, although the times for the Johannesburg to Sishen flight are the same as on Mondays and Thursdays, the Tuesday operation is coded 4Z 773. And the return flight, coded 4Z 774, leaves Sishen only 20 minutes after it arrived there, at 07h20, and arrives at Johannesburg at 08h55.
The Friday flight to Sishen departs much later than its counterparts on the other three days. Coded 4Z 777, it leaves Johannesburg at 16h00 and arrives at the Northern Cape town at 17h15. The return flight, however, has exactly the same timings as the return flights on Mondays and Thursdays (departing Sishen at 17h40 and landing at Johannesburg at 18h55), so has the same flight code (4Z 778).