AIRLINK and SA Express
(SAX) are resuming
operations between
Johannesburg and Mthatha.
Airlink resumed operations
between OR Tambo and
Mthatha Airport on February
19, using a 37-seat Embraer
135 regional jet. It operates
an early-morning and lateafternoon return service,
Monday to Friday. There is also
an early-morning return service
on Saturdays and an afternoon
return flight on Sundays, with
additional fights added to the
schedule as the route returns
to normality.
SAX flights resumed on
February 21, with the service
between OR Tambo and
Mthatha Airport operating
from Sunday to Friday. The
airline intends to increase
frequencies in the coming
weeks. SAX flights depart
OR Tambo at 15h00, arriving
at Mthatha at 16h40, with
return flights departing
Mthatha at 17h10, and landing
at OR Tambo at 18h40.
Services to Mthatha were
suspended on January 25,
following the SA Civil Aviation
Authority’s downgrade of
the airport as a result of a
negative audit.
“Regretfully the disruption
to the service caused by
the airport downgrading has
severely damaged the market,”
Rodger Foster, ceo and md
of Airlink told TNW. “Most
customers were re-routed via
East London and will have to
be encouraged back to our
Mthatha service. It will take
time for uptake to normalise
with supply. In the interim,
Airlink will consider the route
as though it were a greenshoots opportunity.”
SACAA has since then
upgraded the airport to level
four, and restored all the
airport’s operating rights for
passenger air services, with
immediate effect.
Rodger added: “I am
comfortable that the SACAA’s
concerns, which led to the
airport’s closure, must have
been legitimate in order
to justify closure. I am
equally comfortable that
the SACAA would not have
cut any corners, despite the
commercial and administrative
pressures, in satisfying
themselves that enough
had been done in the way of
corrective activities to justify
the airport’s reopening.”
Airlines head back to Mthatha
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