South African Airways and Kenya Airways have signed a cooperation agreement with a long-term view to create a pan-African airline group. It is not a merger but a partnership that seeks to re-organize their assets into an ecosystem that will make them more competitive. The pact did not preclude either firm from pursuing commercial cooperation with other carriers. State-owned SAA restarted domestic flights and launched a scaled-down international service to five African capitals, after its longstanding financial woes were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenya has plans to renationalize its national airline, whose code-share agreement with Air France-KLM for Africa-Europe routes ends this month.
Source : Reuters
