KQ signs deal with Ghana based airline to grow West Africa reach

A Kenya Airways aircraft at JKIA. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By BRIAN NGUGI
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National carrier Kenya Airways  (KQ) has inked a codeshare agreement with

Africa World Airlines, a West Africa regional airline operating out of Ghana, to expand joint reach in the domestic, African and international routes.

The agreement will make it easy for the KQ customers to access Accra directly from Nairobi as well as ply West Africa and international routes jointly, the two airlines said.

A codeshare is a business deal between two or more airlines, which allows them to sell seats on each other’s flights and expand their network.

Each airline publishes and markets a flight under its designator and number as part of its schedule.

"Our combined networks will allow our customers the convenience of seamless onward connectivity to and from the Kenya Airways network onto Africa World Airlines' network. It is imperative that we continue to interlink Africa and allow access within Africa for our passengers," said Adedayo Olawuyi, head of commercial for Africa World Airlines in a statement. 

Kenya Airways chief commercial and customer officer, Julius Thairu said that the growth of air travel in Africa is hinged on partnerships and collaboration that open up the continent. 

"The agreement between Kenya Airways and Africa World Airlines underpins our commitment to provide greater connectivity and market access in the West African region and across Africa,” said Mr Thairu.

“The future of travel will be drawn from a sustainable, interconnected, and affordable Air Transport industry in Africa through partnerships and collaboration that drive the growth of Africa's travel industry."

The partnership comes just two weeks after KQ reached another deal to enable Kenyans living in Minnesota to fly with ease to Nairobi.

This is after the national carrier signed a code-sharing agreement with the US-based JetBlue Airline to have passengers traveling to JKIA connect through New York.

KQ sees consolidation and such partnerships as key to growing its revenues.

“The future of African aviation relies on consolidation to reduce unit costs and connect the continent more,” KQ chief executive Allan Kilavuka said earlier.

“I believe that the African aviation space is very fragmented. We have over 300 airlines in African and some of them are very small and we continue to launch new ones every day which is the opposite of what is happening in other continents,” Mr Kilavuka said during an African business forum.

Kenya Airways and South African Airways (SAA) are also eyeing to establish an African airline in 2023.

The two carriers have signed a Strategic Partnership Framework, in a move which will see the two carriers eventually form a Pan-African carrier.

bnjoroge@ke.nationmedia.com