Kenyan Carrier to Takeover of Major Routes From South African Airways

Kenya Airways wants South African Airways (SAA) to abandon several of the routes it currently flies in Europe and West Africa for Kenya Airways.

In order to start a joint continental airline, the Kenyan carrier and SAA signed a Strategic Partnership Framework in November of last year.

London and Abuja are two routes that Kenya Transport Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge claims KQ, as the airline is known by its international code, wants to take over from the struggling SAA in order to increase its client base.

In order to pick up customers for flights to London or Abuja, the airline wants to stop in Johannesburg.

To increase its revenue and footprint on both the European and West African routes, KQ aims to take advantage of the difficulties the South African airline is experiencing.

According to Njoroge, there are some routes that KQ wants to take over from South African Airways due to their strength on those routes and their availability of aircraft.

Due to SAA’s ongoing financial difficulties, the airline had to suspend operations for over a year until partially resuming operations in 2020.

The airline’s employment was reduced by nearly 80% as a result of bankruptcy, which resulted in a substantial downsizing. Six Airbus SE planes from the carrier’s fleet are now serving nine local and international destinations.

Because of South African Airways’ strength on certain routes and their availability of aircraft, KQ wants to take some of those routes; however, we are still in the negotiation phase.

For over a year, SAA’s operations were suspended due to financial difficulties, and only then did they partially resume in 2020. SAA has been experiencing financial difficulties for a few years.

Because of its bankruptcy, the airline had to drastically reduce its staff, by nearly 80%. Six Airbus SE aircraft from the carrier’s fleet are now operating between nine local and foreign locations.

According to the PS, the two signed an arrangement that involved training Kenya Airways pilots in South Africa. We want to capitalise on the fact that South Africa is ahead of us in terms of aviation training and use the SAA facility as our training hub, according to the PS.

Embraer 190 simulators are not available in Kenya, therefore local pilots are trained in either Johannesburg or Amsterdam.