Kenya Airways (KQ) has inked a codeshare agreement with Africa World Airlines, a West African regional airline operating out of Ghana, to expand joint reach in the domestic, African and international routes.
The partnership will enable KQ customers to access Accra directly from Nairobi as well as ply West Africa and international routes jointly.
“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,” 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. 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.” Julius Thairu KQ chief commercial and customer officer, as quoted by business daily.
This comes after KQ signed a code-sharing agreement with the US-based JetBlue Airline to have passengers traveling to JKIA connect through New York.
“The future of African aviation relies on consolidation to reduce unit costs and connect the continent more. 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.
Additionally, Kenya Airways and South African Airways (SAA) are also eyeing to establish an African airline in 2023.
