Slice of South Africa’s Airlink bought by Qatar Airways

Alamy/David Moody

Qatar Airways has acquired a 25 percent stake in the Southern African independent carrier Airlink, expanding its operations further into Africa.

The privately-owned, Johannesburg-based Airlink already has a code-sharing partnership with the Doha airline and flies to 45 destinations in 15 African countries.

Financial details of the deal were not revealed.

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Qatar Airways’ group chief executive officer, Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, said the stake showed the “huge potential” his airline saw in the African market.

Qatar Airways flies to 29 destinations in Africa and 170 locations around the world.

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The latest monthly figures from the International Air Transport Association showed that global passenger traffic was up 9.1 percent year on year in June. While Middle Eastern airlines reported a 9.6 percent annual increase, African carriers were ahead, with 16.9 percent annual growth.

The Airlink deal continues Qatar Airways’ expansion into Africa. It announced in May that it would partner with RwandAir to open a major international airport in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, by 2028.

RwandAir and Qatar Airways, which also have a code-sharing agreement, are hoping Kigali will rival Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia as the leading transit hub in Africa. 

Qatar Airways has a 60 percent stake in the Kigali project, which was valued at $1.3 billion when the agreement with Rwanda was signed in 2019.

At the time, Qatar Airways CEO Al-Meer revealed he was targeting a stake in an African airline, which would “help us complement the operation of Kigali as a hub”. 

Qatar Airways also owns minority stakes in British Airways’ owner International Airlines Group, Latam Airlines, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, and China Southern Airlines.