KQ will place their code on all South African domestic routes currently serviced by kulula which include Cape Town, Durban, George and East London, while kulula intends to place their code on the multiple daily Kenya Airways services between Johannesburg and Nairobi/FILE
KQ will place their code on all South African domestic routes currently serviced by kulula which include Cape Town, Durban, George and East London, while kulula intends to place their code on the multiple daily Kenya Airways services between Johannesburg and Nairobi.
KQ Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands Manager Rosemary Adogo says the partnership allows passengers to experience seamless travel and increased choices of destinations particularly enhancing competitiveness of Kenya Airways for passengers connecting to other domestic destinations within South Africa.
Adogo says the partnership will essentially allow passengers to travel on one ticket to and from the said destinations.
“We will see a seamless and progressive travel on a one ticket concept thus somebody travelling from Kenya to George or East London will be travelling on one ticket. Equally, we see seamless baggage facilitation from point of departure to the final destination with no disruptions within the operations,” she said.
Adogo says the agreement also provides for a joint marketing between the two airlines in the South African market.
“There will be synergies in joint marketing with kulula in the South African Market and this consequently we are looking at growing the KQ product closer to the market and closer to the people within Southern Africa,” she explained.
The agreement also provides free access of flight details by each airline making it easier to plan and facilitate the passenger travel.
“On the sales side it offers additional product within the offerings that we have in the South African market currently and also offering competitive preposition for both airlines as well as giving us a wider reach to the agents which will help us increase our clientele in this market,” she said.
Currently KQ has three flights between Nairobi to Johannesburg which will now be connected onto the kulula flights to the other four cities.
South Africa contributes 10 percent to the overall business of KQ.
“We are confident that our respective customers will benefit from the partnership by providing them with more convenient booking and travel options within South Africa. We are excited to be working with kulula and look forward to further expanding the relationship to include more travel options in the future,” said Gerald Clarke, Commercial Director at Kenya Airways.
On his part, Executive Manager Business Process for kulula.com Stuart Cochrane says, “The code share agreement with Kenya Airways is an extension of the interline agreement we entered into in 2013 and is in line with kulula’s medium-to-long term strategy to grow our distribution footprint in Africa in a sustainable manner whilst at the same time providing more choice for our customers.”
Bookings will be available for sale effective Thursday.
