Originally Posted by
aristoph
I am planning a trip to SA in March and had hoped to go up to Zambia to the Falls, but am very concerned about the unreliability of Airlink right now. It seems that they fail to operate much of their published schedule, which is understandable given the lack of customers but not a risk I can take for March. They are pretty much the only option to LVI or BBK and I can't go via VFA (Zim requires a PCR test within 48 hours which just isn't feasible when we will be on safari before going to the Falls).
My SA travel agent is at a bit of a loss so I wondered whether any locals on here know what is going on with regional flights?
Thanks.
I had a similar experience going to/from the Kruger Park area this past June. Airliink was supposed to be operating 2 daily flights between JNB and SZK. They ended up only operating 1 flight per day each way and then only operating that flight 3 or 4 days a week. We would have had to miss almost a whole day at the lodge (meaning miss two full game drives). Luckily I had bought a fully refundable fare and was able to cancel and get my money back. We ended up going on the FedAir lodge shuttle instead. Only cost us about double what Airlink would have charged us.
I noticed that after the mid-June time frame (our travel dates), Airlink was much more reliable. They went back to flights 2x daily and operated those flights.
I looked at the published schedules between JNB and LVI. Airlink is currently scheduled to fly 2x per week (until early February when they go to 3x per week). I also looked on the flight history for 4Z482 (the JNB-LVI flight) and it seems to be operating. Personally I would book Airlink for this, but only if you can get a fully refundable fare.
You could also fly to VFA on BA(Comair) and have your lodge take a PCR saliva/nasal sample the day before your fly and run it over to a nearby lab. Our lodge did that for us and it worked out nicely (at double the normal price). We had our results within 24 hours. I have heard from others going to South Africa for safari trips that most lodges/camps are doing the same thing.
Regardless of what you do, I would make sure you have a way of getting your bookings refunded if something goes wrong.