Kenya Airways May Use Angola to Support South American Growth

The governments of Kenya and Angola have concluded and signed a revised Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) paving the way for Kenya Airways to expand its operations into the Southern Africa country. As a result of the revised arrangement, the Kenyan flag carrier will now operate up to three weekly frequencies to Angola and will be able to serve any destination in Angola with a provision of operating to destinations beyond, in particular South America.

“The signing of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement between the two governments is in line with Kenya Airways growth strategy as it helps us in ensuring expansion of the Luanda route which we only started operating one year ago; but more importantly it gives us the impetus to set up operations for flights to South America in the next few years,” said, Dr Titus Naikuni, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Kenya Airways.

The African carrier has recently confirmed that it will introduce an additional two Boeing 777-300ERs to its fleet over the next 18 months and it is thought these have been earmarked for new links to South America. It has already been reported that it could add a new link to the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, which could be launched as early as December this year.

There are currently just 22 flights per week between Africa and South America with Brazil and Argentina the main markets. As the table below shows, TAAG Angola Airlines already offers flights from its Luanda base to both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Angola is now the biggest oil producer in Africa and has positioned itself as a key economic and political player of Africa after 27 years of war that ravaged the expansive country. Due to high growth rate and oil driven economy, Angola is attracting huge investments. Furthermore being China’s largest oil exporter, Kenya Airways is well-placed to transport the growing traffic between these two countries via its hub at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

According to Dr Naikuni that lack of a bilateral partnership has greatly hampered Kenya Airways’ efforts to develop in southern Africa. “This is an important development for Kenya Airways as it offers further consolidation of our expanding African network and brings us closer to achieving our ambition of being the carrier of choice for Africa,” he explained.

Kenya Airways launched flights between Nairobi and Luanda Angola in August 2010 and carried an estimated 5,000 O&D passengers between then and the end of May this year. The revised agreement, which has taken several years to conclude, will now remove the barriers for growth. Alongside the additional traffic rights, it will facilitate enhanced codeshare arrangements with TAAG Angola Airlines as well as a new co-operation with the Angolan carrier in the freight market once Kenya Airways receives its first Boeing 747-400F freighter, later this year.