Airlink flights cut as demand declines

By Phephile Motau

Airlink airline has cut the number of flights to only once a day for four weeks as demand for flights has declined.

This was confirmed by the company which operates the Sikhuphe (KMIII International Airport)-Johannesburg (OR Tambo International Airport) route.

The airline usually offers three flights to Johannesburg and customers who were hoping to travel to and from Johannesburg during the period voiced their concerns as they said they were at times inconvenienced by this.

“I wanted to catch the last flight to Eswatini from Johannesburg one day, and I was told that the next flight would be the following morning,” one client told the Eswatini Financial Times.

Marketing & Customer Liaison Officer Sandzisile Motsa explained that in their industry demand stood to determine how many flights can be operated on each day. She said if the demand isn’t there, the flights are automatically cut to meet the demand at that very moment.

Motsa said Airlink operated the Manzini-Johannesburg route once a day for four weeks only, solely as per the demand at the time. When asked if the airline was facing any challenges, Motsa said that was not the case. On average, KM III International Airport has three departure flights each day.

One industry insider said this could have been caused by the fact that most people who use the route are business travellers and most people in the month travel for leisure.

The insider said most people who travel for leisure travel in large numbers, and therefore the bill for flights becomes too big for them and they prefer to travel by road.

“Many people use the December time to unwind, therefore they do not travel for business, and hence the number of those requiring air transport declines,” she said.

Meanwhile, statistics from the Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) show that in December, there were 918 inbound travellers and 365 outbound travellers at the KMIII International Airport.

In November, there were 854 inbound travellers and 638 outbound travellers, while in October, there were 1 306 inbound and 894 inbound travellers who made use of the airport.

The airline was previously a joint venture between the Eswatini government and South African Airlink. The government issued a joint statement announcing the end of their Joint venture airline, Eswatini Airlink in April last year.

Eswatini Airlink was established in 1999 to provide air services for the Kingdom after Royal Swazi National Airways stopped operating. The parties said they had mutually agreed to dissolve their joint venture airline business, and it ceased operations on June 1, 2022.

This came after the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini recently re-established a national airline and the parties said they had jointly and amicably agreed to discontinue Eswatini Airlink’s operations in an orderly manner to avoid any disruption and inconvenience to our customers.

It was revealed that Airlink would seamlessly continue providing the service, and most importantly, they offered to employ every Eswatini Airlink staff member with Airlink, thereby securing their jobs.

The new national carrier, Eswatini Air, will also provide scheduled air services between Johannesburg and King Mswati III International Airport as well as other routes, and the Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) has promised that they will offer affordable fees in line with their slogan ‘Everyone Must Fly’.

Eswatini Air will announce its launch date after fulfilling some outstanding critical requirements after obtaining its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) after a protracted process.