South African regional and domestic airline Airlink has announced that it is going to increase the number of its services between South Africa and Malawi. Specifically, it will add a flight to its Johannesburg-Lilongwe service.

Airlink started flying to Malawi in September, which then became the fifteenth country in the carrier’s regional network. It operates services from Johannesburg to both Lilongwe (Malawi’s capital) and Blantyre (the country’s financial and commercial centre).

“As anticipated, the market has responded positively to Airlink’s offering on the routes, which are all about providing reliable, convenient and great value connectivity for travel between the two countries,” reported airline CEO and MD Rodger Foster. “In response to popular demand, we will be upping our frequencies on Johannesburg-Lilongwe-Johannesburg to four a week – with the introduction of Saturday flights – from mid-December.”

Airlink flights to Lilongwe are coded 4Z 460 and will, with effect from December 16, take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, departing Johannesburg at 11h00 and arriving at Lilongwe at 13h20. The return flights will be operated on the same days, and coded 4Z 461, departing Lilongwe at 14h10 and arriving at Johannesburg at 16h35.

(The airline’s flights to Blantyre are operated, both ways, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The services from Johannesburg are coded 4Z 450 and depart Johannesburg at 11h00, arriving at Blantyre at 13h05; the return flights leave Blantyre at 14h15 and reach Johannesburg at 16h35.)

The complementary scheduling of the Lilongwe and Blantyre services means that Airlink will now fly to Malawi on every day of the week. Both routes are operated by Airlink using its Embraer regional jets, normally 37-seat ERJ135s. Passengers have a free luggage allowance of 20 kg on these aircraft, and a choice of window or aisle seats (no Airlink airliner is fitted with middle seats).  

The airline was founded in 1992 and now has a fleet of more than 60 modern jet airliners. Its network embraces Southern and East Africa, as well as the islands of Madagascar and St Helena, in addition to domestic South African destinations.