Kenya Airways urges consolidation of African airlines to cut intra-continental travel costs

NAIROBI | Xinhua | Kenya Airways, the country’s flag carrier, said on Friday that the consolidation of airlines on the continent will help reduce the cost of intra-African air travel.

Allan Kilavuka, chief executive officer of Kenya Airways, said in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi that travel within Africa costs more than double for similar distances in other regions of the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

“Africa has many small national airlines which are competing in fragmented markets, resulting in high cost of air tickets,” Kilavuka said during a session of Aviation 101 Media Lab, a collaborative platform that brings aviation experts and journalists together to foster knowledge sharing and enhance the quality of aviation sector coverage.

Kilavuka noted that to be profitable, commercial airlines require a fleet of at least 50 aircraft, which is a challenge for many African national airlines.

He suggested that if African countries merge their national airlines, they could pool resources together by creating regional aviation hubs, avoid duplication of operational costs, and pass the savings to air travelers.

Kilavuka also said the slow implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market, which was launched in 2018 to liberalize the aviation market, has led to low seat occupancy for national airlines. ■