Flying with Airlink in South Africa and Zimbabwe: My review
Written by Beth
I’m going to start by saying that I have NOT been paid for writing this review, and I did not receive any discounts on my flight tickets (unfortunately).
I had a really positive experience with Airlink and can recommend them to anyone travelling in southern Africa.
In case you missed it, this post comes as part of the epic 20-day holiday we did around Cape Town and Zimbabwe. We organised and booked the whole trip ourselves without any travel agents or outside help – although if you want to use a tour operator contact me and I’ll recommend one. But check out that post to see the Why, What and How of the trip.
We had just spent a soul-warming week in Cape Town, South Africa and now we were off to Harare, Zimbabwe for the next leg of our holiday. Read on to hear about our flights with Airlink, a regional airline for southern Africa.
Why did we choose Airlink? They have a reputation for being on-time, safe and reliable. Yes, there are other airlines that do these routes, but we went with the ‘peace of mind’ option with a generous baggage allowance. Check out my post on flights to Zimbabwe for more airlines and routes.
Onboard experience: food, entertainment and luggage
We’d booked Economy class (Plain Sunbird basic) for the Embraer 190 from Cape Town to Harare. As someone who is used to UK regional budget airlines where they cram you into the seats, don’t include any food or drink in the price, and generally provide an atmosphere of being trapped on a stag party with people you don’t like, this was altogether a much more civilised experience.
Food: The best part … light meals and drink are included in the price!
The air stewards refilled our drinks THREE times! I know that one day they will adopt the cash-grabbing model of their overseas regional counterparts, where you have to pay triple the price for just a bottle of water, but until that happens, I’m relishing every moment of this African air luxury. The kids got juice boxes which are so much better than cans or cups – less spillage!
What’s more, the food is simple but good quality and often nods back to the local countries cuisine. For example, in our box of snacks, we got portions of this Rooibos Chai toffee. I’d never tried it before, so it was fun to have something new and interesting to try on the flight. And yes, it was delicous and I will now buy it whenever I’m in South Africa.The big box behind it is what the food came in – very cute.
The boarding process, punctuality of the flight and attentiveness of the staff were all easy and as we’d hoped – no problems at all.
Entertainment: There’s no in-flight entertainment but we had books, games and electronics with Bluey downloads on them – no probem.
Luggage: We had A LOT of stuff. Large suitcases plus carry-on suitcases, backpacks, two car seats and a pushchair. Again, this was a regional flight, but we were allowed all of this without paying an extra fee. We had the same luggage as we did for our International Flight with British Airways. This was a huge relief to us as we didn’t want to have to re-pack of offload luggage for this leg of the journey. 
We also flew from Harare to Johannesburg OR Tambo Airport at the end of our trip. This was part of a British Airways journey from Harare to London. British Airways codeshares with Airlink for the Harare to Jo’burg leg.
The experience was very similar to the Cape Town to Harare flight. Again, I can’t pick out any faults. The aircraft was the Embraer E190 again.
About the airports
- Cape Town International Airport is smaller than Johannesburg OR Tambo Airport. Both of them have bookstores with large sections dedicated to local (English-language) books which I could have looked at for hours.
- They have a variety of cafes and restaurants, in mostly clean, well-laid out environments. There are large curio shops, clothes shops and food shops. You can view the runway from both of the airports.
- In OR Tambo Airport, our favourite place to sit and relax between flights is the Mugg & Bean cafe near Gate A4.
- At Cape Town Airport
- Harare International Airport (Robert Gabriel Mugabe) has recently been expanded and refurbished – however this left some of its shops empty which had a weird vibe.
- The car park hasn’t been extended to match the other extensions, so this is probably the most chaotic part of the journey. People park each other in and the exit can have queues.
- Although the facilities were fine, some of the toilets were missing toilet seats in the Ladies (not ideal) and check in was not very efficient.
- Our favourite place for a coffee while waiting for our flight airside is Cafe Nush, down the new section of the hall.
- There aren’t any dedicated kids areas or dedicated family boarding queues in Cape Town, Harare or Johannesburg airports as far as I could tell. However, the staff usually call us to the front or to a separate queue when they see we’re travelling with a toddler.
How we booked our Airlink flights
- For the Cape Town to Harare flight, we booked directly on the Airlink website from the UK, around 3 months in advance.
- This flight was a way of getting to the next leg of our trip without having to drive between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
- The price was around the same as a train from London to Paris, and given that the distance from Cape Town to Harare is around five times that, I’d say it’s a reasonable fee to pay.
- Times: Our flight from Cape Town to Harare with Airlink departed at 10:30 and arrived at 13:40, duration 3hrs. We needed to check in two hours before the flight.
- The booking process on the website was easy and we were able to pay in Pounds with our UK credit card.
- For the Harare to Johannesburg flight, this was part of our booking with British Airlines back to the UK, which we booked on the BA website from the UK, around 3 months in advance.
- This was part of our flight back to the UK with British Airlines. They codeshare with Airlink for some of their Zimbabwe flights.
- We had booked a multi-destination flight on the BA website: Out was London to Cape Town direct; In was Harare to London (via Johannesburg with Airlink).
- Times: Departed Harare 13:30, arrive Johannesburg Terminal A 15:15, duration 1hr 35 min. Departed Johannesburg 19:20 for an overnight flight to London.
Follow Great Zimbabwe Guide on Facebook (@GreatZimbabweGuide), YouTube & Instagram(@GreatZimGuide) to see my videos of the airports and flights. 
Links
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What to pack
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