Lufthansa and SWISS, both part of the Lufthansa Group, announced an interline agreement with privately owned South African airline Airlink on Thursday.
According to Lufthansa, this will offer its customers access to over 25 domestic destinations in South Africa, including Bloemfontein, George, Upington, Skukuza, Nelspruit, Hoedspruit and Port Elizabeth, as well as over 20 regional destinations in Southern Africa, such as Gaborone, Kasane, Vilanculos, Maun, Victoria Falls, Maputo, Windhoek, Harare, Lusaka, Ndola and Bulawayo.
An interline agreement is basically a commercial cooperation, which allows customers the convenience of purchasing a single ticket to or from a multitude of destinations in Southern Africa, via Airlink's gateways in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
"Therefore, it offers a truly seamless travel experience across both airlines. We value Airlink as an important and reliable partner in the restart of our South African operations, and look forward to exploring further opportunities to widen the scope of our joint collaboration," says André Schulz, general manager sales for Lufthansa Group in Southern and East Africa.
Airlink CEO Rodger Foster is impressed by Lufthansa's global reach and values.
"The deal will provide our customers with a wider choice of travel options through the convenient interconnectivity," he says.
Earlier this week Ethiopian Airlines announced an interline partnership with private SA airline CemAir. Ethiopian's code share agreement with SAA was suspended indefinitely in October last year.
Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic globally, demand in the airline industry is still not what it used to be, making sustainability a challenge.