Johannesburg — REGIONAL airline SA Airlink and Mozambique's privately owned TTA airline have teamed up to form a new airline, TTA Airlink, to serve the Mozambican domestic and regional market.

TTA Airlink will begin operating from February 14 with a daily flight between Maputo and Johannesburg before expanding its network from Maputo to other cities in Mozambique.

"The new Maputo service, which leaves Johannesburg in the morning and arrives back late in the day, will allow businessmen to travel to Maputo for a full day's business before returning home," SA Airlink MD Rodger Foster said yesterday.

SA Airlink holds a 49% share in the new airline, with the remaining shares held by TTA. TTA Airlink will use a leased Avro RJ85 from SA Airlink.

Foster said yesterday that TTA Airlink would expand its network over the next few weeks with flights from Maputo to the secondary cities of Beira, Tete and Nampula. "First we will add three flights a week to Tete, which will be scheduled to allow those passengers on the Johannesburg- Maputo flight to catch an onward flight to Tete," said Foster.

TTA Airlink will next add a daily flight between Maputo and Beira, Mozambique's second city. Currently, SA Airlink flies daily to Beira from Johannesburg, thus giving clients a further option.

The two airlines have been in discussions for the past three years but were able to press ahead with their planned joint venture only when the bilateral air policy agreement between the two countries was expanded to include a second carrier from both countries. Previously, the Johannesburg-Maputo route was served only by LAM, Mozambique's flag carrier, but with the changes to the bilateral agreement in July last year, 1time and TTA Airlink have been granted rights to the route.

Alex Carreira, chairman of both TTA and TTA Airlink, said TTA had been approached by several European airlines for a possible partnership but their management believed that partnering with a South African airline made more sense.

Foster believes the fast-developing nation provides the new airline with huge scope to grow.