Behind Airlink’s resurgence after acrimonious divorce with SAA

Airlink’s Rodger Foster is not a typical cardboard cut-out aviation executive and he does not run an ordinary airline, either.

Foster is the consummate gentleman; he is soft spoken, calming in demeanour and contemplative. His passion for what he does, his love for the company and its people is evident at first encounter of Airlink’s culture and amplified the moment you step into his Edenvale office.

There’s no pretence here, no smoke and no mirrors. Foster’s office door is always open and a walk down any passage sees him warmly greet everyone. The battle scars of the past two years are there, though. Airlink has not been immune to Covid’s grim reaper, the weakened economy and its divorce from SA Airways (SAA).

The latter was a costly separation but, today, Foster leads one of the continent’s largest airlines by network and fleet. Airlink will soon sport a fleet of 53 Embraer aircraft (total fleet when taking other types into consideration will be 60), with more than 45 destinations and an on-time performance of 97.5%. While Airlink’s momentum seems unstoppable for now, Foster remains cautious.

He said: “I think the pandemic has been a harsh realisation as to how quickly markets can be switched off and how long it takes to rebuild once there are no passengers flying.

“And it would be unrealistic to expect that we are through the worst.

“The worst part of the pandemic is the uncertainty of how various governments will behave and what protocols … they would implement.”

Foster is a Joburger by birth and completed matric at Roosevelt High School, after which he pursued a BSc in science and building.

“I have always liked the idea of flying but it was not in my career framework at the time.”

The bug started gnawing when he joined friends who were members of the Wits Flying Club on a few sorties. It did not fully take hold yet, though. It was only after joining Metro Cash and Carry in its store development department that Foster’s shift to aviation gained pace.

He said: “As part of my job I had to visit far-flung places not quickly accessible by road, like Polokwane, for example, and the company’s owners, the Kirsch Group, had its own internal airlift service called K-Airways.

“That is how we travelled for work.”

On one of his business trips, the pilot invited Foster to the flight deck for the landing.

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“He allowed me to hold the control during the landing and it was the first time I ever got to feel what it was like to fly an aircraft,” he remembers.

The bug didn’t let go after that. The pilot of that particular flight advised a curious Foster about the journey to becoming a pilot. His pay cheque at the time made it possible to obtain a private pilot’s licence. He bought a
small, second-hand aircraft and started clocking flight hours.

He got thinking about the commercial potential of aviation. Soon, the small aircraft made way for a larger one and he started ferrying his employer’s staff around South Africa. It became the genesis of Airlink as we know it today.
Foster’s business quickly expanded as he acquired a hangar complex at Lanseria, started a maintenance organisation and charter operation and by 1992 had got involved, first as a pilot, in the now defunct Link Airways.

It’s been a turbulent flight for Airlink, particularly because of its franchise relationship with SAA from 1997. When SAA went into business rescue, Airlink lost almost R1 billion of its revenue.

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“How does a company that goes into business rescue end up defaulting on money that was not theirs in the first place?”

Foster questions the morality of SAA starting up again on the back of creditors and his missing cash, emerging from business rescue without forfeiture of a single asset.

“How do you justify carrying on business in that way?” Airlink and SAA’s acrimonious divorce was followed by the pandemic that forced the airline to shut up shop for several months in 2020 when “we had just become independent”.

He described what it felt like to be the last person to leave the building when lockdown kicked in, turning off the systems, switching off the lights before exiting the office.

“And we really didn’t know whether we would return at all,” he remembered.

Airlink made a plan and returned to the skies in June 2020, more determined to survive than ever.

“Somehow, we’ve managed to scrape the bottom of the barrel and monetise latent equity that we had resident within our balance sheet, and convert that to liquidity and have that available for working capital.

“That process, made sure we are still here today, which is which is the biggest blessing of all.”

– news@citizen.co.za