Airlink muscles further into local market

Mbongeni Mguni | Monday October 23, 2023 06:00

BusinessWeek has learnt that Botswana is amongst one of the priorities for Airlink, which over the years has built a formidable presence in the region’s skies. Airlink has up to 50 return flights a week to Gaborone, Maun and Kasane, a stiff challenge to Air Botswana which has struggled with both aircraft and overheads.

This week, Airlink opened a three-man dedicated office in Gaborone to offer easier access to flight reservations, ticketing, and special services assistance. The airline’s CEO and managing director, Rodger Foster, told BusinessWeek that Airlink was responding to strong prospects in the local market. “Demand for air travel to and from Botswana has staged a rapid post-pandemic recovery and has already surpassed pre-COVID traffic levels,” he said in an interview.

“This is unique because no other country has reached the pre-pandemic levels at this point, and I’m talking about no other countries within the sub-region.” He continued: “We are seeing this in demand for business, for leisure and personal travel and Airlink’s ethos is premised on being accessible and in touch with the needs of our customers. “Having a city office in Gaborone provides our customers with a convenient one-stop shop for support for flight reservations, ticketing and special services assistance.” Airlink’s milestones in the local market come as Air Botswana mounts yet another turnaround effort to break even and return to operational profitability.

The national airline has experienced running losses since 2008 due to an ageing fleet, high maintenance costs, equipment failure, route redundancy and pressures from competition.

Earlier this year, government injected P168 million into the national airline. Initially, the Ministry of Finance had planned to give Air Botswana P133.6 million but this was later increased by P35 million to adequately cater for the refurbishment of the fleet. A major focus of Air Botswana’s new turnaround plan is to aggressively push the cargo business, while cutting operating expenses by hiving off non-core activities such as the ground handling unit.

Airlink, meanwhile, has also opened an office in Lusaka and hopes to pick up rising air passenger volumes, especially for tourism, in both Botswana and Zambia. “Botswana and Zambia are both important and vibrant markets for Airlink, which provides crucial connectivity for people travelling for business and leisure,” Foster said in a separate statement.

“As international long-haul tourism recovers, we are also seeing strong demand for travel on our services to Maun, the Okavango Delta and Livingstone, on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.”