New daily flight from Cape Town to Joburg

From 4 December 2026, South African private regional airline Airlink will launch new flights on one of the country’s busiest routes, Cape Town to Johannesburg.

The airline’s new flights will operate twice daily between the Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) and the Lanseria International Airport.

According to the airline, the service will provide a convenient point-to-point connection for people travelling to and from Johannesburg but who want to avoid congestion at OR Tambo International Airport.

The privately owned airport is located northwest of Johannesburg and is ideally placed to serve communities and businesses in the west of Gauteng and the North West province.

“Travel options on this route have been limited, and our intention is to give passengers a comfortable and enjoyable alternative for travelling between the two regions, while also complementing our existing services to OR Tambo,” said Airlink CEO De Villiers Engelbrecht.

Once inaugurated, the new route between the two cities will be Airlink’s first scheduled domestic service to Lanseria.

An Embraer E190 aircraft, which accommodates 98 passengers, all seated in window and aisle seats since there are no middle seats on Airlink flights, will operate along the route.

From 4 December 2026, Airlink flights between Cape Town (CPT) and Lanseria (HLA) will operate on the following days and times:

According to the airline, it will increase these frequencies to four daily return flights effective 22 March 2027, with an updated schedule published closer to the implementation date.

A new era for Qatar-backed Airlink

Airlink, partly owned by aviation juggernaut Qatar Airways, expects to increase revenue in the current financial year after expanding its fleet with a delivery of new Embraer jets.

The airline operates a fleet of more than 70 jets consisting exclusively of Embraer aircraft and has so far this year received four aircraft with both business and economy classes, while three more are due by July next year.

Airlink also acquired 10 of the 195-E2 models it ordered in 2025, with the final deliveries expected by mid-2027.

Engelbrecht explained that Airlink’s fleet strategy is very deliberate in terms of using only Embraer jets.

“That’s the right aircraft gauge for the markets that we service. It’s typically markets that prefer frequency over capacity,” he said.

According to the airline’s CEO, it plans to grow its network by about 10%, including two more countries, expanding Airlink’s total destinations to 67 across 16 countries.

Last week, the regional carrier launched its inaugural flight to Mauritius and added a new flight between Cape Town and Zanzibar.

Engelbrecht told Reuters that its current expansion represents Airlink’s most ambitious growth year in the airline’s history.

“If we look at the growth opportunities in front of us, we’ve got enough to keep ourselves busy for the next two years,” he said, declining to elaborate on the figures.

Qatar Airways owns a 25% stake in Airlink, which carried about 4.5 million passengers in the fiscal year through August, representing 5.5% growth from the previous period.

“We are quite encouraged by the demand in the regional market, and we look forward to a quite good peak season,” added Engelbrecht.

He noted that there are “too many opportunities on the continent” as the airline looks to expand in western, eastern, and central Africa.