Kenya Airways has expanded its co-operation with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines within East Africa, following the signing of a joint venture agreement.
The expanded agreement will boost the existing benefit-sharing model between the two carriers. The extended co-operation will be effective from 1 January, and the two carriers will add four new routes to the current arrangement, increasing the total KLM-KQ joint venture to a total of six routes.
In 1997, KLM and KQ initiated a joint venture on the Amsterdam-Nairobi route, and in 2008 expanded the joint venture with the addition of flights between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Currently, KQ and KLM operate a daily service between Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and JKIA. The airlines jointly operate 19 weekly return flights between The Netherlands, France and Kenya.
From next year, the co-operation will be expanded through the addition of the following routes: London-Nairobi; Amsterdam-Entebbe/Kigali; Amsterdam-Lusaka, Harare; and Amsterdam-Kilimanjaro/Dar es Salaam. This will bring the total number of frequencies operated jointly by KQ and KLM to approximately 44 weekly flights.
The Air France-KLM Group currently operates to 42 destinations in Africa, besides holding a 26.73% stake in Kenya Airways.