Airlink in bed with Virgin
 

Just a rumour:eek: Virgin wants Airlink....... After they could not get the old Sun Air:ok: , they now want to buy SA Airlink and bring in the ERJ 175. According to people in the know, the ERJ 175 is the new money spinner for thinner routes!

funny ha ha
 

back in bed with saa to end of year!:confused: still trying to get in bed with comair!:bored: and now a virgin wants them:p
whats this world comming to?
looks like R500/hr is fast becoming /sector:mad:
uum does anybody really want them? what do they have to offer?

A foot in the door, that is all Virgin wants....:eek:

Don't you think from a marketing point it makes sense to get into a market where the main contender (SAA) is cutting back on certain routes?

To fill that gap with an airline (Virgin) that can offer low cost tickets, provide a good service and make a huge profit in the process makes a lot of economic sense to me.

Just look at Virgin Blue in Australia, going strong for 5 years...

Hopefully SAA will sit up in time and realise they are making a mistake, again...:ugh:

Yes - but ZA already has two (or is it three) LCCs?

Branson is not one to buy existing companies - he prefers to start things from scratch. When the market is already full it would be a strange decision to try and get in via a carrier that is not geared for LCC. I don't think this will happen.

If Virgin does want to work with Link, it will be to arrange onward passage of their long hauls and many of those will be Premium Economy and Upper Class pax, not LCC material. VS used to have a deal with Nationwide but they are now competition (sort of) on the long haul.

Uhmm surely not ? :E:E:E

What are you doing in SA ? :E

Maybe not...
 

The first LCC is Kulula.Com, a low-cost airline based in South Africa operating domestic scheduled services. Code Data IATA Code: MN ICAO Code: CAW

Kulula was established in July 2001 and started operations in August 2001. It is a 100% owned subsidiary of Comair and was set up by them as a low-cost carrier. This is why in my opinion one of the main reasons why they are still around and doing so well.

1Time is the second, new in the market, doing well, was established round about beginning of 2004.

Nationwide is not a LCC. With them competing on the long haul flights with Virgin, why would Virgin want to keep them as partner in SA? Conflict of interest has never helped any company in the aviation industry.

Sir Richard and Virgin also definitely did not start CellC (mobile phone company in SA) nor did he start Vmobile (Ex Econet) in Nigeria, as two examples. Yet he is/was in aggressive talks with both these companies, why ..... to get a foot in the door and have access to an ever expanding market. Granted not aviation related yet, at least to a degree, I don’t think your argument of him only starting new companies hold any water.

As for going to bed with Link, with it's fleet of low cost Jetstream 41 aircraft and Embraer 135 jets, I don’t think they will be to far off the market to start a LCC and expand from there, should SAA vacate the routes in question.

See the vision:

Virgin seems to be on a huge drive to become one of the major player in world aviation, including Africa, an untapped resource. With huge expansion possibilities in the future into Africa with Airlink in the South, and with Virgin Nigeria, in the west, the financial hubs of Africa will be covered and they will have very little competition from anyone else in Africa. Right or wrong?:hmm:

Ok so it would make ecomical sense - especially to saairlink (any offer would be good for them)
To aquire the airline is one thing but to aquire the airline with that management ? (they know who they are:yuk: )
I believe everyone is joining a new union there and looks like staff turnover is on the up (looks like a good buy to me ! ;)

Not sure if you can classify a J41 or an ERJ 135 as a low cost aircraft....

If you have a look at their current business stratergy Airlink focusses on low density, high yeild regional and domestic routes. Now when the SAA deal drops away their core market does not- so why persue the LLC model when you already have a viable market segment with little or no competition?

The problem Airlink faces at the moment is that they have no Central reservation system, no Departure Control system, no revenue accounting system- and no staff to perform these functions either! Thats what makes their arrangement with SAA so sweet- they just pay SAA to do all this.

Now if they were to go with Virgin then sure they would be given access to all of Virgins' CRS, DCS and revenue accounting functionality but they would still have to employ a few hundred people locally to do all the work plus you then incur all the costs associated with starting a franchise operation- ask Comair about that. Then you have to ask yourself whether the average person flying to Petersburg/Nelspruit/Phalaborwa etc will be tempted to fly more because the plane has Virgin branding? probably not- they will fly whoever operates the route.

If you were to assume( to justify the LLC argument) that they were to start operations on the larger domestic routes then they would have to get bigger aircraft- this market segment is driven by capacity, doesnt seem woth the effort given the number of competitors already in the market...

Here would be my recomendation: Go it alone- go back to the Link brand or choose another name if you like, keep sweet with SAA and do a deal with them to host your flights on their CRS (SAA has hapily done this for years with other airlines- most notably Comair prior to their BA franchise) set up your own revenue accounting department- not too hard to do, get a handling agent to handle check-in and ramp handling (Swissport/ Equity etc) Finally I would outsource the call centre on the same basis as check-in and ground handling- lots of good operators out there at reasonable rates. This stratergy would be quick to impliment- no more than 2 months, it would be cost effective (provided Airlink negociate well!!) and they would probably make more money out of the same passenger base as they would not be paying a cut to another airlink for franchise fees etc.

Anyway my 10c worth.

Sayswho, you seem to think that you know it all! Airlink is a financially stable company and the only reason why things are the way they are is from the SAA Code sharing agreement, limiting Link's expansion. Soon this will be all over and then please quote your "Sayswho" on the CV with your application.

Dream on!

Whatever happens in the future airlink have not really grown in the last 4 years. Ok you have the jungle jets replacing the J41 on a few routes out of FACT and a few flights north of the Limpopo and Zambezi but not that much. I recall a few years ago they ordered 30 ERJ135s.

This article from 2001 alludes to another 28 aircraft and was written after the first two were delivered.

http://www.saairlink.co.za/Press_rel...iannewjets.htm

By the way are they still planning on phasing out the J41s as was once mooted?

hey Wiele sonder mags
i don't know it all even though I possibly know more than you - but dont expect my cv anytime soon. since i was a previous employee i am able to offer a different view on the matter, one of those of us who were capable of moving on into the bigger world. you need to have a good look around and you may notice the crowd is getting smaller (3 to saa 2 to comair 1 to nationwide and others still hunting) hey maybe you could even climb the seniority list !
anyway dont blame saa they were good enough to drag you along for the past how many years. And now i wish you every success in your new venture into the big world. Just remember there is competition out there now with aircraft that have capacity and a damn good product at what half the price!!

And hey g tower the j41 appears to be their saving grace its what pays to keep the royal few in the seat of the erj and the order was cancelled for more many moons back due to open skies not being opened)

I notice that in the last year Airlink have shelved a few routes. Most recently the service between Lanseria and Cape Town, as well as the services to Plett. Why is this as I thought both would be niche markets?

I can understand Sun-Air failing with their business class only service from FALA to FACT but surely Airlink should have made a better fist of it than they did with the jungle jets. As for Plett, can't understand why this one hasn't worked either. Sure you can land much bigger a/c at FAGG but then its an hours drive to Plett.

Recuperator I should have been more precise. My reason for saying that Branson prefers to start new companies comes from his purchase of the failing Belgian company (cannot recall name) that he bought and made Virgin Express.

Whilst they are now doing OK and one of the first low cost companies based in mainland Europe (NOT UK or Eire) he said that the problem of turning around entrenched views and approach to work took more time and effort than a start up.

I heard him say this in a TV interview. Of course, some companies he takes over but he stated that it was not his preferred approach. AFAIK, apart from Virgin Express, all his other airline companies have been start-ups.

Thanks
 

I am sad I missed that interview. He is an extraordinary and facinating human being, with a great ability to make anything he touches turn to gold, or is that white and red.:ok:

Recup I was also fortunate to attend a sponsored lunch event in the late 1980s where Branson was the guest speaker. This was when he only had VS and all the other airline expansion was in the future.

He gave a potted story of starting the airline, why and how. At the time, he had done a series of adverts for American Express. The edited film, showed him taxing their first machine (a 741 as I recall) up to a garage and paying for the gas with AmEx. He had come in for a lot of stick about putting himself forward for that and wanting to be in the front of all the pictures (this in the media of the day).

His reply was simple, "It was free advertising! Where else could I get prime time TV adverts for my airline and have someone pay me to do it?" Likewise, any of the records that he has set out to win have ALL had the Virgin brand stamped on them.

Of course he has critics in his companies but he gets my business as first choice in long haul. My next trip to ZA will be with VS.