Africa: Kenya Airways shares more with Delta Air Lines

From 1 September 2019, passengers of the American company will be able to book under code DL flights operated by Kenya Airways between its base at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta and airports Dar es Salaam-Julius Neyrere in Tanzania, Entebbe in Uganda, Lusaka-Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia and Maputo-Mavalane in Mozambique. The agreement was signed a year ago, and initially focused on the Kenyan company's routes to Paris-CDG, Amsterdam-Schiphol and London-Heathrow (three airports served by Delta), as well as routes to "more ten cities in Africa "including Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Lilongwe in Malawi, Johannesburg in South Africa or Djibouti.

Last May, the two companies of the alliance SkyTeam extended code-sharing to the direct line between Nairobi and New York-JFK, inaugurated by Kenya Airways in October 2018. Its passengers can further continue their journey under code KQ to eleven destinations in the United States and Canada aboard Delta flights.

Delta Air Lines and Kenya Airways are also cooperating on loyalty programs frequent flyers can earn and redeem miles on both airlines, while Elite Plus travelers enjoy SkyPriority services. The American company has been operating flights to Africa since 2006, serving Accra in Ghana, Dakar in Senegal, Lagos in Nigeria and Johannesburg in South Africa.

Recall that the Kenyan company whose Air France-KLM is a 7.8% shareholder in 2018 improved financial results : It posted a turnover of 114.45 billion shillings (1.13 billion dollars), against 106.17 billion in 2017, and reduced its loss before taxes from 9.44 to 7.59 billion shillings ($ 75 million).