The southern African airline, Airlink, is spreading its wings with a new daily Johannesburg-Nairobi service, which will see it become the first private sector airline to offer flights on the route from 24 April 2023.
Airlink will provide much-needed competition and additional choices for business and leisure travellers. Kenya becomes the 15th country in Airlink’s comprehensive sub-Saharan route network and its third in East Africa.
The service will be operated with Airlink’s comfortable and efficient state-of-the-art 98-seat Embraer E190 jetliners.
“Airlink’s entry on the route supports last November’s agreement by Kenya and South Africa to eliminate trade barriers and strengthen commerce and economic ties by opening-up business and cooperation between the two major economies in key sectors and markets.
It also follows South Africa’s removal of visa requirements for Kenyans visiting South Africa for up to 90 days (South Africans do not require visas to visit Kenya),” said Airlink’s CEO and Managing Director Rodger Foster.
“This is also an important moment for Eastern - Southern Africa connectivity. With Airlink’s network now including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and most of the Southern African Development Community nations, we offer travellers the widest set of choices and convenient regional and inter-continental connections on our own aircraft and with our global carrier partners.
These enable the businesses and economies Airlink serves to expand their own respective market reach. Similarly, our competitive services will promote tourism in both markets, generating additional foreign travel spend,” Foster added.