#24 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
27 reviews
Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!!
This is FR number 3 of my trip from South Africa and will cover the return leg from Kimberley back to Johannesburg on Airlink. Airlink (formerly SA Airlink) is a South African regional airline. They used to operate under the South African Airways (SAA) brand until 2020 when the airline ended its franchise agreement following SAA's bankruptcy and eventual suspension. As of the making of this FR, Airlink is the 2nd largest airline in South Africa operating a fleet of all Embraer jets.
Normally, this route is flown using the ERJ-135/145 however it's flown with the E-170 once a week, which happens to be today. As for price, I paid R1360 ($75/€68) which is typical for Airlink. LCCs like FlySafair are usually cheaper however they only operate to large cities like Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha (formerly PE).
I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:
KIM → JNB: 212kg
Total for 2024 (so far): 2266kg
Here's the video version of this FR, it's got pretty much the same thing content wise.
I don't know why I do this, but I arrived way too early… again. Technically it was only 2 hours before departure but most people show up 1 hour before, hence why it's completely deserted.
The baggage reclaim area is on the left, separated by the glass wall.
I mean, the airport is tiny. It's got 2 check-in desks and security doesn't actually open until around 40 minutes before the first departure, which was a flight to Cape Town departing at 08:10.
And here's the airside room. There's technically 3 gates but really, it's just 2 sets of doors leading to the apron.
There's actually a tiny shop here on the right (that red wall).
Flight time to Johannesburg will be around 45 minutes and here's our route:
We're actually very lucky to get accurate data for our flight, while most commercial flights in South Africa is tracked, it's by no means reliable. One of the most common 'issues' I found was that return flights often show up with the same flight ID (callsign) as the outbound, fooling apps like FR24 into displaying that the flight 'diverted' back to the origin airport 4-5 hours after departure. As far as I'm aware, this issue only exists in South Africa.
Boarding started on time and here's a photo of our plane.
Some information about our plane:
Type: Embraer E-170
Registration: ZS-YBB
First flight: 14 July 2002
Age: 22 years
Config: C6/Y68
She's the 5th Embraer E-170 built with and is the oldest active aircraft of the type. She was built in March 2002 and remained with Embraer until June 2005. After that, she flew for Indian carrier Paramount Airways before being delivered to Airlink in December 2017.
And here are the seats onboard.
The legroom - not bad for a regional jet.
First views out of the window.
Taxiing out 5 minutes late.
Takeoff! Bye bye Northern Cape!
Amazing views of the town as well as the mines. Kimberley is a city that originated from the discovery of diamond deposits. While The Big Hole (Kimberley Mine) is Kimberley's first and most famous mine, there are many other (more recent) mines. You can 3 in this photo, they are all still in operation (as far as I know, information on them are very limited on the internet).
Reaching our cruising altitude.
Shortly after, the crew came around with a snack box. As if a snack box on a 45 minute flight wasn't good enough, there was actually an option of either strawberry muffin or cheese & crackers to choose from.
I went with the muffin and here are the contents inside. It contains a strawberry yoghurt, strawberry muffin and a (not strawberry) biscuit. This is honestly amazing for a 45 minute flight, I barely had enough time to finish everything before we started our descent haha.
After a very short cruise, we're already starting our descent into Johannesburg.
Finally, lets have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket, which includes an air-sickness bag…
… a safety card…
… and an inflight magazine.
Here's Airlink's route map, the airline has a huge route map flying to small towns in South Africa as well as to destinations in surrounding countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
First views of land.
Nice views of the suburbs on final approach.
Welcome back to Gauteng! We arrived on time.
Some very interesting planes can be seen as we taxi to the gate: On the far left you have 2 South African Airways A330s with one (ZS-SXM) heading to São Paulo (GRU). On the right you have a FastJet ERJ-145 (Z-FNJ) (the plane with the yellow tail) heading to Harare (HRE) in Zimbabwe. You also have an Airlink in a Belavia-hybrid livery (the blue/white tail). Finally, closest to us is an Eswatini Air ERJ-145 (3DC-EAB) heading to Manzini (SHO). A lot of exotic registrations here and we'll see more of at least one of those planes in future FRs *wink*. ;)
Parked at the gate with more Airlinks.
Walking to baggage reclaim.
Still walking to baggage reclaim….
Finally! The baggage reclaim area.
I'll end this FR here. I have absolutely no idea why I didn't take any photos of the landside area. I must've forgot (I'm a great reviewer… as you can see). But anyway it doesn't matter as JNB is the main airport on this trip so I'll be flying in/out of here a lot more times in future FRs.
I'm actually not staying here in Pretoria. I'll be getting the Gautrain to Pretoria. An important note for anyone thinking of taking the Gautrain here:
Yes, the trains are very safe. There's staff on every train however I'd recommend against taking it, especially if you have to take an Uber on the other side. Ubers aren't allowed close to the Gautrain stations, which means that you'll often have to walk 5 minutes from the station to a random street, where the Uber will pick you up. This is (obviously) a huge safety issue, especially for tourists and at night. I had to do it twice with my luggage. The first time was at Hatfield (at the end of the line) and it was kinda safe (the loosest possible definition of the word). Yeah, I asked locals and they said it was safe, but I generally learnt to not trust locals when they say somewhere is safe (one of them told me that it's safe and crime is something that 'just happens').
The second was at Pretoria train station (to catch a coach), that was genuinely terrifying. Even the Uber driver was slightly concerned when he dropped me off. I basically just tried to get out of there as fast as possible. I learnt from then on not to take the Gautrain and just get an Uber straight from the airport. I never saw it mentioned online and I'm not sure if it's true for stations in Jo'burg but it's just something to note if you're considering a trip here.
Anyway, I'll be staying for a few days in Pretoria before getting a 24 hour coach to Cape Town (yes… I'm actually insane). You'll find a video of that on my YouTube channel (releasing 2 weeks after this FR). My next FR will cover the flight back here from Cape Town on a very special flight. Thanks for reading and see you there!
A very nice flight with Airlink. Seats are nice and padded with fairly good legroom. Catering is absolutely top notch, having a snack box (with 2 options) for a 45 minute flight. I'd highly recommend them for regional travel in Southern Africa.
Kimberley Airport (KIM) - A small airport, probably a bit to small to handle 2 flights departing at the same time, especially in the morning when security doesn't open until 40 minutes before departure, resulting in a pretty big queue. But still, even with that you'll be fine arriving 1 hour before departure.
Johannesburg O.R Tambo International Airport (JNB) - A nice and fairly efficient airport, it's got plenty of shops and a food court in the landside area (as well as 2 spotting decks) so you won't be bored or hungry during a long layover.
11 Comments
Still in old livery ?
It looks similar to what SAA offers on domestic flights. Otherwise it's indeed a great meal for such a short flight - the service on domestic flights in SA, regardless of the airlines (except the LCCs of course) is often impressive.
SAA's network looks pitiful compared to this...
Theses 2 are the only ones left in SAA's fleet. They also have an A340 flying to Perth and I heard that another one will be deployed soon.
Cape Town ? Special flight ? I saw theses 2 SAA A330 in the picture, and I know they fly daily to CPT. My guess is that this special flight is on a SAA A330. Maybe I'm wrong !
At least on CPT flights SAA gives a full hot meal, DUR gets snacks and I'm not sure about PLZ.
Wait is it actually daily? I knew that they flew some days but not daily, if I'd known I'd have tried harder to fly them!
Indeed it’s daily. Sometimes double-daily. Last time I went to South Africa I originally made an itinerary including the 330 but sadly it wasn’t possible for me to take it because I didn’t had the time to go to Cape Town…
Yup! I think it’s just the handful of E170s that’s not been repainted. Not sure why, maybe they’re getting retired or something?
Oh absolutely. It’s sad seeing the airline shrink like this, but at least they’re still flying.
Wait, I didn’t realize it was daily either. Maybe I didn’t search hard enough but I couldn’t find any A330 flights on the route on some days - it was hard finding the sole A330 flight in between the 50 flights that fly the route haha. (I might’ve confirmed your guess with how much I’ve said 🤣)
Good advice here. I think locals have a very different perspective of "safe" vs Europeans/North Americans due to the different conditions. One impression I had in SA was that I was always hopping from one "safe" place to another. I never truly felt free to just roam around. And it was crazy seeing all the electrified fencing and barbed wire around some neighbourhoods and shopping centres, and even individual houses. Seeing that never really instilled a sense of confidence in safety. Needless to say I never took the Gautrain when I visited Jo'burg and Pretoria for this very reason. Being on the train itself is fine, it's just getting from there to the hotel or whatever that's tricky.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, service on flights in SA are generally very nice, especially on larger, more established airlines like Airlink and SAA.
I know a few people in the UK from SA and they all told me they never realized how dangerous the country is until they left. I guess most people take ‘basic precautions’ like not walking on the streets and electric fences as something that’s normal. And yeah, I never really felt safe anywhere in public. Even in ‘safe’ places like malls I’d always be on alert for anyone suspicious. I go so used to it at the end it took some readjusting when I got back to the UK.
Thanks for reading!
It seems like this might have been even smaller than Kruger Mpumalanga!
That's impressive, strangely that's even more than what I got with them on any of my Airlink flights, even the DUR-JNB one which was longer than this.
These days Airlink is pretty much the South African flag carrier, SAA has only 3 domestic routes and a very small regional international network.
Those Airlink/Belavias are truly some of the most unique planes in South Africa
Ah, JNB arrivals, I almost miss them now after going through there so many times last month.
I wonder what they would consider unsafe...
My guess is that it's either the SAA A330 or a LIFT or Airlink in a special livery.
Really? That's interesting.
They really are! It’s my first time seeing the Belavia livery in person so it’s quite odd being on the other side of the world haha.
I’ve wondered the same thing. Most people I talked to outside Joburg said it’s incredibly dangerous (including some that lived there before) but everyone there says it’s ’not that bad’. I guess most people there are either unaware of how dangerous it is or they’re used to it. I’m guessing the latter.
🤔 I feel like there’s a ton of special liveries in SA… especially Safair and their ‘Springboks Livery’.
Thanks for reading! ;)
Same here, the first time I saw it from the bus I was sure it was some small local airline that just happened to look like Belavia but then when our plane went past it I saw it properly and it was Belavia, then I looked it up and it was Airlink.
And LIFT's Disney one.
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