Flight: 4Z873
Route: JNB-HDS
Aircraft: E140
Flight Date: 02.02.2022
Flight Time: 00h 40min
Class: Economy
After last week’s big review on the Swiss First Class, today I’m going to talk a bit about Airlink again. This time, I took a flight between Johannesburg and Hoedspruit in their E140, I was quite shocked this time on how many things have changed in the last 6 months since I last flew them.
Boarding was of course via bus, the bus was cramped, I really was surprised how many tourists are flying with us. Comparing it to the last time, where we haven’t even been 10 guests. As well, talking of the domestic terminal in Johannesburg, it was simply packed with passengers, all the shops where open and it seemed covid doesn’t exist. This to be said, I never felt unsafe or so, because everyone was taking the rules that where set in terms of Covid-19 serious. It wasn’t the feeling of carelessness we had in Europe that time, everyone cared which made a quite normal life possible.
Okay, let’s jump into a fully booked plane and take off in the summer-sky above Johannesburg. Flight time was only 40min which set an ambitious goal for the only cabin crew on board to do a service on a that short flight. And yes, you heard right, they finally brought back the inflight service on their flights. Airlink only operates an economy class on their smaller jets, so everyone got the choice between some sandwiches that looked amazing and tasted alike as well. Also, you’re provided something to drink, which was appreciated as well, especially considering the outside air temperature was more than 35°C and I was coming from -2°C in Europe.
The crew though was as usual, not too ambitious in making the flight as pleasant as possible, she did her job but nothing more. At least this time, she was a little more talkative than the others I had before.
I also got the chance to talk to the captains, which was quite cool, they talked about the approach into Hoedspruit, quite often, they just turn off the autopilot as soon as they see the runway and fly in manually. The landscape around Hoedspruit is truly amazing, seeing it from above, being shacked around by the rough manual flying of the pilot it is true enjoyment for an avgeek. As the plane was quite high during approach, the pilots used some techniques mostly used by gliders to bring that plane down to the runway, awesome to experience those maneuvers on a commercial flight.
Concluding, Airlink, still proudly being the biggest international operating airline in South Africa, as they brought back inflight service, they are definitely the best option in my opinion for travel in South Africa. As well, their small jets and remote destinations are a highlight itself, as you can enjoy pure aviation on those flights. With this flight being just 150$ round trip, it is better value for money than most full service carriers in Europe offer.
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