Qatar Airways has acquired a 25 percent stake in South African airline Airlink, one of Africa’s largest airlines.
The agreement, signed in Doha on August 20, 2024, builds on years of cooperation between the two airlines, which already operate codeshare flights on some of their routes.
Following this equity investment, the two airlines are expected to strengthen their partnership, improve connectivity between their respective networks, cooperate in the commercial field and link their respective loyalty programs.
From August 2024, Airlink will operate an all-Embraer fleet of more than 60 aircraft, including virtually all types of the Brazilian manufacturer’s commercial aircraft, from the 37-seat ERJ-135 to the E-195, which can carry more than 100 passengers.
The Qatari airline will also receive two seats on Airlink’s board of directors, but will remain a minority shareholder without control powers, Airlink CEO Rodger Foster said in an interview with a South African news channel shortly after the signing ceremony.
With this move, Qatar Airways also underlines its commitment to the African market, a continent where it already flies to 29 destinations. The Airlink cooperation is expected to help strengthen connections between the Doha hub and other markets in Southern and Eastern Africa, where Airlink is strong.
Airlink boss Rodger Foster: “There needs to be some rationalisation” in African aviation
AeroTimes Africa correspondent Michael Jonga spoke with Airlink’s Rodger Foster during AviaDev 2024, a conference on the present and future of the African commercial aviation industry held in Windhoek, Namibia in June 2024.
In the interview, Foster stressed the need for greater consolidation in the African aviation industry and ruled out expansion in the long-haul market in the foreseeable future. The airline executive explained that Airlink achieves global reach through its alliances with global airlines and focuses on offering more frequencies in the markets where the company is already present. In this way, Foster said, it is possible to offer much better connectivity.
Foster also noted that Airlink would continue to be an “alliance-free” airline and that its current partnerships with around 36 different airlines (six of which are codeshare relationships and the other 30 are interline agreements) would remain in principle.
