I used to fly a lot with SA Airlink but COVID changed how people work, including how much I travel. So, after an absence of about two years, I flew with them again. The flight crew were amazing. They were really good, kind, friendly and efficient.

Unfortunately, not everything was wonderful. The check in was a bit chaotic. On the international check-in side, there were queues only for Lubumbashi and there were queues elsewhere for other destinations. However, there was no signage to say which counter was for which international destination. Luckily, I was in the correct queue. Some passengers had to leave my queue and go to other SA Airlink queues for other international destinations once they were told by ground staff that they had, essentially, not been in the correct queue.

The boarding process was the worst. It started on time and the passengers got onto the bus. However, we stood on a crowded bus for twenty minutes, going nowhere. Thankfully, it was not a hot day in Johannesburg but, still, some people wanted to pass out, unlike the ground crew who were comfortable inside the terminal.

When we got to the plane, they announced that someone's luggage was leaking and we should all check to see if it was ours before boarding. Fair enough as this is a safety issue. However, I have no idea where they put the luggage, so I could not check if it was mine. I presume they found the correct person because no one made an announcement on board to say they were still trying to identify the owner of the luggage.

The food onboard was okay. It was more than enough for me as I have been eating very little of late but, I am sure, for a lot of passengers, it was far from enough. I ate the chicken meatballs. Why they were coated in a sweet, syrupy sauce, I do not know. That was not very pleasant. The pasta salad was okay. The dessert was pleasantly chocolatey but too sweet.

At Lubumbashi airport, it was complete chaos trying to retrieve luggage. This is definitely partly the airport's fault but SA Airlink ground staff seemed to be invisible. We had to be directed by random people, whom I suspect, wanted "something small". They got nothing "small" from me.

what a fantastic airline i have disability and i got excellent help would fly again they went above and beyond for me and made my journey a breeze

I flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The flight was just fine. I can find no reason to complain. I will fly on Airlink again.

The service on Airlink was very good and the little food box was surprisingly tasty. Both flights to Botswana and from Zimbabwe were on time and with efficient boarding procedures. Planes were clean and seats about as comfortable as one can expect.

Interconnection with other airlines is a bit of an issue, though. I was connecting on Airlink to/from Botswana on flights with British Airways. On my outbound I could not check luggage through and had to run through passport control in JNB to collect luggage and dispatch it again. BA did give me a boarding pass all the way through. On the return through CPT they did check the luggage through, but the international transfer at CPT was closed for whatever reason. So, I still had to run through passport control twice for no reason.

This was our first experience with Airlink, between Maputo, Johannesburg and Cape Town. And it was a really good one: the online booking was very smooth, boarding was orderly, each plane took off on time, the crew was very pleasant yet professional, the seats were comfortable and, icing of the cake, we received on each (even short) flight, a very tasty and filling snack! What a great experience, compared to all the recent bad experiences with other companies!