Kenya Airways, Air France KLM Agree to Terminate Africa-Europe Partnership

Kenya Airways (KQ) and Air France KLM Group have agreed to mutually terminate their Africa-Europe partnership.

The airlines’ joint venture on seven routes between Europe and Africa will cease on September 1st, 2021.

“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,” KQ CEO Allan Kilavuka said.

The joint venture cooperation between the two carriers had been suspended for the calendar year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty of return to normalcy in operations.

KQ said it will continue to serve the European market through its gateways of London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome.

“These routes will be served by onward codeshares from the Air France KLM group and additionally with our ever-expanding network of European carriers including Alitalia, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Airlines amongst others,” KQ said in a statement.

Since Kenya Airways is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, the loyalty program will continue to apply on all the partner flights.

Frequent Flyers will continue earning and redeeming miles, while Elite Plus travelers are benefiting from Sky Priority services.

KQ operates about 70 flights per day to over 53 destinations across the world, 43 of which are in Africa.