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Dubai-based airline Emirates and local privately owned airline Airlink on Monday announced that they are expanding their existing partnership into a code-share agreement.
Emirates recently resumed its flights to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and said in a statement that the code share with Airlink will give travellers to and from South Africa access to more than 40 domestic and regional destinations across 12 African countries.
The connectivity provided by the new code share between Emirates and Airlink will enable the offering of competitive fares, combined ticketing, and seamless baggage transfers when connecting between the two airlines.
Customers travelling to South Africa can now transfer from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to domestic points such as Bloemfontein, George, Upington, Nelspruit, Hoedspruit, Kimberley, Skukuza, Pietermaritzburg, Richards Bay, Sishen, Mthatha and Gqeberha, as well as regional destinations such as Gaborone, Kasane, Vilanculos, Lubumbashi, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Maseru, Antananarivo, Pemba, Tete, Maun, Victoria Falls, Walvis Bay, Maputo, Windhoek, Harare, Lusaka, Ndola, Bulawayo and Livingstone, among many other cities.
"We are committed to growing our operations in South Africa, and with the strong connection opportunities being provided collectively with Airlink we hope to help jumpstart the recovery of the local travel and tourism industry," sais Adnan Kazim, chief commercial officer of Emirates.
At the same time, he said Emirates was eager to restart its code share with South African Airways (SAA) once the state-owned flag carrier starts operations again.
"The tourism and air transportation sectors have been hardest-hit by the pandemic and the associated lockdowns and travel bans, and as the world gets vaccinated, we expect the pent-up travel demand will be realised, and more customers will want to visit the special destinations that Airlink offers services to," said Rodger Foster, CEO and managing director of Airlink.
