Statistics
Airline: Airlink
Regions of operation: Southern Africa
Fleet Size: 60+ aircraft
Priority: Fuel management
Airlink is a privately-owned, regional airline flying to over 45 destinations in 14 African countries and to St Helena Island. It has interline and codeshare agreements with Emirates, Qatar and United Airlines, offering international travellers more choice and connectivity.
It’s an IATA member and proud to be the most punctual Southern African airline with an on-time performance consistently better than 95%.
"Skymetrix has assisted Airlink to vastly improve our fuel administration functions while not needing to add more back-office support staff."
Hardus Kuschke
Executive Manager Cargo, Airlink
Getting control over one of the biggest expenses
Prior to 2020, the Airlink team were managing their fuel planning and accounting using spreadsheets, but wanted to get greater visibility, accuracy and control over this large operating expense.
They selected the Skymetrix fuel management platform and went live with it in July 2020, after a short implementation phase.
Automation enables sustainable growth
In the years following the implementation, Airlink saw rapid growth, increasing the number of flights by 600% between 2020 and 2023. This of course meant a huge increase in the amount of fuel uplifts, contracts, and invoices that needed managing.
However, because the Skymetrix platform automates critical fuel management tasks such as invoice verification, Airlink has been able to work smarter and deal with the increase in workload without adding more people. This positively impacts airline profitability and enables the airline to grow sustainably.
Hardus Kuschke, Airlink’s Executive Manager Cargo, said:
“Skymetrix has assisted Airlink to vastly improve our fuel administration functions while not needing to add more back-office support staff.
“Our finance team are in a position to deal with significantly more supplier invoices, accurately verify them in great detail, and make on-time payments to suppliers, with the same headcount as four years ago. We currently deal with 7000+ monthly uplift events with ease and in line with tight credit terms.
“Skymetrix also made it possible for Airlink to reduce some credit days with suppliers, allowing us to reduce guarantees with suppliers.”
Kobus Bezuidenhout, Head of Sales Consulting and Partnerships at Skymetrix, said:
“With the help of our solution and support, the team at Airlink have transformed the way they manage fuel over the last four years. They now have high levels of accuracy, complete visibility, and full control over this major operating cost. They also have the right IT infrastructure and processes in place to be able to easily scale up operations. It’s been gratifying to see their progress.”
"Our finance team are in a position to deal with significantly more supplier invoices, accurately verify them in great detail, and make on-time payments to suppliers, with the same headcount as four years ago.”
Hardus Kuschke
Executive Manager Cargo, Airlink
Inspired by Airlink’s story?
Talk to our team today and find out if you can achieve similar success.
Kobus Bezuidenhout
Head of Sales Consulting and Partnerships, Skymetrix
