Qatar Airways Group has announced it has bought a 25% strategic equity stake in South African regional airline, Airlink (South Africa) (4Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo), confirming months of media speculations about the deal.

In a joint statement on August 20, the airlines said the announcement continued Qatar Airways's ambition to further develop its operations across Africa.

Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said: "Our investment in Airlink further demonstrates how integral we see Africa being to our business' future. This partnership not only demonstrates our confidence in Airlink, as a company that is resilient, agile, financially robust and governed on sound principles, but also in Africa as a whole, showing huge potential that I am delighted we are able to help start realising."

Airlink CEO and Managing Director Rodger Foster commented: "Having Qatar Airways as an equity partner is a powerful endorsement of Airlink and echoes our faith in the markets we currently serve and plan to add to our network. This transaction will unlock growth by providing efficiencies of scale, increasing our capacity and expanding our marketing reach. By bolstering Airlink and its business, this investment will strengthen all of the existing airline partnerships Airlink has nurtured over the years."

Foster had been batting off rumours and media speculation about the deal after Al-Meer let slip at the Farnborough Air Show in July that Qatar Airways was finalising an agreement with a Southern African airline. Qatar Airways is also finalising a 49% investment in East African carrier, RwandAir (WB, Kigali). Al-Meer said Southern Africa was missing in the carrier's African network, following a partnership with Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Mohamed V) in North Africa.

For Airlink, the new shareholder will open new avenues for growth. A long-standing operator of an all-Embraer fleet of 64 regional jets, Airlink is consolidating around the E190 type and is looking for opportunities to enter the narrowbody market to meet competition on domestic point-to-point routes and consolidate an overtraded South African market. "Airlink does need to up-gauge to larger single-aisle/narrow body aircraft for some of the trunk routes where we need to achieve lower unit costs and with Qatar Airways, we will definitely be exploring potential opportunities and benefits relating to fleet planning," Foster said when asked by ch-aviation what the transaction meant from a fleet planning perspective.

Airlink is also keen to access Central- and East African routes like Johannesburg O.R. Tambo-Kigali, dominated by RwandAir. The South African carrier is designated to operate to Kigali, and the partnership with Qatar Airways could help remove barriers to Airlink entering that market, Foster previously told ch-aviation. "There may be closer working relationships that can emerge through the common tie to Qatar," he said.

Airlink has six existing codeshare relationships, including with Qatar Airways. Notably, it acts as a significant feeder to Qatar Airways competitor Emirates. The future of that relationship was not immediately addressed.

For the time being, Qatar Airways' share in Airlink is restricted to 25% in line with South Africa's regulated cap on foreign ownership in local airlines. The subject is currently being contested in Pretoria over the foreign ownership of competitor FlySafair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo), backed by Irish lessor ASL Aviation Group. A decision on the matter has been delayed by a backlog of work at the domestic and international licensing bodies in Pretoria following a stand-off with the Department of Transport over unpaid allowances to council members.

According to the announcement, Qatar Airways and Airlink will align their loyalty programmes.

Qatar Airways currently flies to 29 destinations in Africa, and there has been strong growth in the market, with nine new destinations added to the network since December 2020.