Retirement? What retirement? Airlink Avro RJ85 ZS-SYO at Johannesburg on 23 November (Mike Wright)
Although South Africa’s Airlink officially ended Avro RJ85 operations on November 17, one of its RJ85s has operated several more flights since—pressed back into service to help the airline cope with the increased number of flights she is operating to cover for the strike affecting South African Airways and its subsidiary, SA Express. RJ85 ZS-SYO (msn E2394) had operated Airlink’s last scheduled RJ85 services on 17 November. However, she was back in the air on the following day, overating her familiar SA8300/8301 to Maun. Then, on 20 November, she operated SA8902 to Polokwane, returning to Johannesburg the following morning as SA8819. On 22 November she flew to Windhoek and back as SA74/75, and on the following day she again operated SA8300/8301 to Maun.
Update: SA74/75 from Johannesburg to Maun and back on 23 November appears to have been Airlink’s last RJ85 service, as none of its RJ85 has flown since then.
Previous news items on Airlink:
- Airlink ends Avro RJ85 operations (2019-11-18)
- Airlink helps cover routes of grounded SA Express (2018-05-27)
- Airlink ends flights from Pretoria (2018-05-08)
- Airlink barred from merging with Safair (2018-02-24)
- Airlink to merge with Safair (2017-11-27)