Kenya Airways (KQ) and South African Airways (SAA) arein search for a West African partner airline to join its two-member pact.
The two carriers in November last year signed a strategic partnership framework in South Africa in a move that will see them eventually form a Pan-African carrier next year.
“The intention is to invite a West African airline at some point in the future to also join. We will have a three-hub strategy of Nairobi, Johannesburg, and the West African hub to create better opportunities and services for our customers,” The Nation quotes KQ Board chairman Michael Joseph.
Under the strategic partnership, KQ and SAA will form a holding company under which KQ and SAA will continue to operate separately under their brand names and maintain their routes.
The holding firm will help the carriers with services such as catering, maintenance, and financing. Further, it will lower the overall cost of flying so as to attract more passengers across Africa.
KQ Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka says that under the pact, the airlines will synchronise their schedules and networks and synergise common costs.
The partnership under the holding company borrows a leaf from Europe where carriers such as British Airways have collaborated under corporations such as the AIG Group.
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