Kenya Airways (KQ) has agreed to fly cargo for South African Airways (SAA).
THE CARGO DEAL COMES at a time the two carriers are in talks to jointly expedite the implementation of common business plans to gain a competitive edge over rivals.
The cargo agreement has KQ carry cargo on behalf of SAA on routes that it operates freighter business to such as Amsterdam.
KQ signed an agreement in 2021 to establish a pan- African airline by 2023. This latest move gives KQ an opportunity to expand its cargo business which it has been growing since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cargo accounted for 19 percent of KQ’s Sh70.22 billion sales in the year to December 2021. “KQ is carrying cargo for us on routes where we don’t operate as a third-party service provider,” SAA CEO John Lamola says. “They are doing cargo for us because we don’t have the capacity to do it. We only operate nine planes down from 50 because we went into bankruptcy.”
The two carriers signed a strategic partnership in November 2021, in a move that is expected to see them form a Pan-African carrier. It is expected that the partnership will improve the financial viability of the two airlines currently struggling to stay afloat.
Customers will also benefit from more competitive price offerings for both passenger and cargo segments. To date, the two carriers have signed a lounge access agreement for their customers as part of the Strategic deal to establish a Pan-African Airline. The lounge access agreement allows KQ business class customers as well as Sky Team Elite customers (platinum and gold) to have exclusive access to the SAA lounge services at O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
The partnership between the two carriers comes at a time when they are both struggling financially. SAA was declared bankrupt a while back, a move that saw it ground its services for months before resuming operations again last year.
Both SAA and KQ, making loses long before 2019. KQ reported a net loss of Sh15.8 billion in the year ended December 2021 compared to a net loss of Sh36.2 billion the year before when travel restrictions hit operations hardest.
