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Kenya Airways extends its regional accord with KLM
PHOTO | FILE Kenya Airway chief operations officer, Mbuvi Ngunze (left), chief executive Titus Naikuni (centre), and KLM general manager East Africa Dries Klein.
What you need to know:
- National carrier to increase shared weekly flights from current 19 to 44
- Currently, Kenya Airways and the Royal Dutch Airlines operate a daily service between Amsterdam’s Schipol airport and Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and jointly have 19 weekly return flights between the Netherlands, France and Kenya.
National carrier Kenya Airways will increase its benefit sharing mode with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to 44 weekly flights beginning 2014.
Currently, Kenya Airways and the Royal Dutch Airlines operate a daily service between Amsterdam’s Schipol airport and Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and jointly have 19 weekly return flights between the Netherlands, France and Kenya.
Kenya airways chief executive officer, Titus Naikuni said the expanded joint venture would involve the addition of more routes to double the frequencies between Europe and East Africa in order to serve customers regionally and into Europe, he told reporters at an investor briefing last week.
The routes to be introduced from January, subject to regulatory approval, are London-Nairobi, Amsterdam-Entebbe/Kigali, Amsterdam-Kigali and Amsterdam-Kilimanjaro/Dar-Es-Salam. The two airlines jointly expect to raise revenue in excess of $500 million (Sh43.5 billion) annually.
The partnership comes after the national carrier capacity in Europe declined by 7.8 per cent in the second quarter of July to September of daytime flights to London were withdrawn.
In the last financial year, Kenya Airways posted a Sh7.86 billion loss after tax following a drop in passengers due to the eurozone crisis, and several travel advisories. It hopes to tag on to KLM’s reputation to reverse its dwindling returns.
Co-operation between the two airlines dates back to 1997 with a joint venture on the Amsterdam-Nairobi route which was extended in 2008 to include France.
In addition to holding a 27 per cent stake in Kenya Airways, the Air France KLM Group flies to 42 destinations in Africa, reaching 15 cities on the continent.
“In this industry you cannot grow without cooperation and synergies, due to its complexity,” Mr Naikuni said.
The African Airlines Association, Afraa, which brings together continental airlines, is of the view that under-performance of most African carriers is a result of dominance of the African airspace by European airlines, variously accusing the EU of citing safety concerns in Africa airspace to ban carriers from its space.
“The KLM network connects The Netherlands to every important economic region in the world,” said KLM chief operating officer Pieter Elbers.
