Airlink and South African Airways (SAA) are working together on a practical solution that would enable the smooth revalidation and re-accommodation of tickets and vouchers issued by SAA for travel on future Airlink flights, when scheduled passengers services resume after the present COVID-19 preventative travel restrictions have been lifted.
In January, Airlink and SAA agreed to replace their long-standing franchise arrangement with an interline agreement to enable Airlink to accept tickets issued by SAA bearing the “083” prefix for travel on flights operated by Airlink.
However, the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 crisis has compelled SAA to reassess and amend their respective refund policy.
In this regard, SAA is currently providing affected ticket-holders with vouchers for travel on SAA flights on future dates in lieu of refunds. As Airlink intends to recommence operations after the lockdown using its own “4Z” ticket code and flight number prefix, it is currently unable to accept SAA-issued vouchers or tickets bearing the “083” prefix.
Understandably, these changes and the confusion arising from them, have caused concern and upset, for which we offer our sincere apologies.
It is important for Airlink customers to be aware that in terms of Airlink’s franchise relationship with SAA, ticket sale revenue resides with SAA for all 083 SA8 tickets until such time as Airlink has delivered the flight service. Airlink cannot refund tickets as the ticket sale revenue is in SAA’s possession.
Therefore teams from both airlines are working together to develop a clear and transparent solution that will permit the re-accommodation or revalidation of SAA-issued “083” tickets on Airlink flights into Airlink’s “4Z” reservation system or alternatively for Airlink to issue vouchers for travel on Airlink on future dates.
We will provide further information as soon as everything is in place.
About Airlink
Airlink is a privately-owned, BBBEE Level 4 business, with strong institutional shareholders and a respectable track record of consistent profitability over the past 28 years. The regional feeder airline is headquartered in Johannesburg, has the largest fleet of commercial jetliners in Southern Africa, operates more than 5 600 flights per month on 55 routes to 39 destinations in nine African countries with a better than 95% on time performance. Last year Airlink carried almost two million passengers on their more than 63,000 flights.