Kenya Airways (KQ) and Air France-KLM Group have announced their mutual decision to terminate their Africa-Europe joint venture partnership from 1st September 2021.
The two airlines had previously suspended the joint venture cooperation for the calendar year 2020, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent uncertainty of return to normalcy of operations.
Kenya Airways will continue to serve the Europe market through London, Paris and Amsterdam, with Rome set for resumption in 2021. These routes will be served by codeshares from the Air France-KLM group and additionally with its ever-expanding network of European carriers including Alitalia, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Airlines.
KQ celebrated 43 years of operation in January 2020 and was named Africa Leading Airline 2019 by the World Travel Awards. It takes pride for being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the World and vice versa through its hub in the ultra-modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
“This development allows Kenya Airways to offer additional options and convenience to our customers connecting through our European gateways in line with our goal of supporting the recovery of international tourism in Kenya and connecting Africa to the World, and the World to Africa,” said Kenya Airways CEO, Mr Allan Kilavuka.
As a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, its loyalty program will continue to apply, as on all the partner flights. Frequent Flyers will continue earning and redeeming miles, while Elite Plus travellers will continue to benefit from SkyPriority services.
Kenya Airways operates over 70 flights a day and flies to over 53 destinations worldwide, 43 of which are in Africa.