South African regional airline Airlink has been declared the winner of the Africa and Middle East category in the 2023 FlightGlobal-Korn Ferry Airline Strategy Award. The award was presented to Airlink CEO and MD Rodger Foster at a ceremony in London, in the UK, on Sunday night, attended by more than 250 airline industry executives from around the world.

The award was given in recognition of the airline’s success in reinventing and rebuilding itself in the face of the major crises it faced over the past few years. In addition to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which halted its operations, it had also been hit by a massive debt default by the State-owned South African Airways (SAA), which was forced into business rescue.

Although independent of SAA, Airlink had been a franchisee of the national flag carrier. It had existed, in Foster’s words, “in the shadow” of its then franchise partner. Consequently, the regional carrier had not only had to survive the huge financial blow represented by SAA’s debt default, which left Airlink without any cash, but also had to build a new and totally independent brand. And then, hot on the heels of the debt default, the pandemic hit.

“Although this was the most painfully difficult black swan series that I have experienced in my 31 years at the helm of Airlink, I wish to acknowledge Airlink’s staff and shareholders for sharing the pain individually, unanimously and collectively, and thank them all for their dedication and commitment,” he said in his award acceptance speech. “This incredible collective didn’t waste these good crises, we recognised and capitalised on the opportunity. We are thankful for Airlink’s survival and we accept it as a form of success. Importantly, in a country that has 35% unemployment, we are relieved not to have lost a single job throughout the pandemic.”

He highlighted that in just three years the airline had created an entirely new route network, which now covered 45 destinations across South, Southern and East Africa, as well as Madagascar and St Helena Island. It had established partnerships with 34 airlines, and had code-sharing agreements with five of them, including some of the world’s major intercontinental carriers.

And now Airlink, once a franchisee, was becoming a franchisor.

“We have also invested in FlyNamibia, which is in the process of adopting our intellectual property as a franchisee,” noted Foster, in his speech. “FlyNamibia is well positioned to develop a branded network domestically and regionally. We are committed to the success of this venture which we see as repeatable and scalable.”

Airlink now possesses a fleet of more than 60 Embraer jets, and operates more than 75 000 flights a year. According to Airports Company South Africa data, the carrier’s on-time performance consistently exceeded 95%.