Blog Archive

Monday, October 08, 2012

Abu Dhabi - Next destination for Kenya Airways?

Interesting tidbit from Reuters.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/08/uk-airfrance-etihad-airbelin-idUKLNE89700R20121008

KQ's 2nd largest shareholder [& technical partner] is Air France-KLM therefore the recent agreement between AF-KLM "Air France-KLM, Etihad, Air Berlin plan partnership" probably means KQ may reduce flights to Dubai in favor of Abu Dhabi to take [code-share] advantage of Etihad's worldwide connections to Australia, China, North America & the Far East.

Etihad flies to Nairobi & a code-share for ET passengers to (Southern, Eastern, Central, Western) Africa may make sense for both parties. I expect Etihad will not give up major destinations like Jo'burg & Lagos but let KQ handle smaller destinations like Entebbe, Kigali, Kinshasa, Luanda, etc

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This will probably be a short term arrangement assuming that KQ in the near future proceeds with its own ambitions of direct flights to N. America, China and Australia from which it will route passengers from East, Central and Southern Africa through Nairobi. That will however depend on how fast JKIA is expanded and how quickly KQ resolves its internal issues.

coldtusker said...

@Joel - Good point but as you say it is going to take a few years!

1) JKIA's new (greenfield) terminal will take 3-4 years
2) USA/Australia is not possible/feasible until the fuel-efficient 787s show up. The competition is intense on these routes.
3) Africa remains the key market & it is cheaper to use 'partners' to feed into NBO than serve some (distant) markets sporadically.

Unknown said...

Yeah, i agree it is cheaper to use other partners to feed traffic into NBO particularly because KQ may find itself flying unprofitable routes. The airline needs to consolidate itself on its present and more profitable routes before it seeks to expand to the very competitive transcontinental flights. The airline appears to be putting expansion at the expense of profitability. Also KAA should outsource the management of JKIA to a reputable private firm.

Medicineman said...

Do you like KQ? Do you think there is a rally in the stock coming up over the next 2 years?

Unknown said...

I'm so glad Mr Steven Ryan finance gives business and personal loans,I got my loan of €12,500 from him and I was so happy when I got credited Email him on (stevenryanfinance@gmail.com) if you need a loan okay.

Unknown said...

click siteclick to read more check my blogadditional resources his comment is heretop article