Kenya Airways and Delta Airlines have expanded their partnership, offering their customers seamless travel to a total of 44 cities in Africa, the United States and Canada.
Passengers travelling from Nairobi to the US on Kenya Airways can now access 25 cities in America and Canada using one ticket following the expansion of the codeshare partnership between the two carriers.
The enhanced partnership also allows Delta customers travelling from the US access to 19 cities in Africa. The additional cities include Boston, Buffalo, Norfolk and Rochester.
“Kenya Airways will place its code on Delta flights from New York-JFK to Boston, Buffalo, Norfolk, Rochester and Syracuse for customers flying on its nonstop Nairobi- New York-JFK services,” KQ, as the national carrier is known by its international code, said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, Delta will add its code to Kenya Airways' additional frequencies between Accra, Ghana, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Liberia, and Nairobi, Kenya.”
Customers of the two airlines will continue to enjoy one-stop connections from Nairobi, Accra, and New York to destinations already served by Kenya Airways and Delta in Africa and the U.S.
These include Columbus, Dallas, Washington and Boston in the US, and Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar, Mombasa, and Entebbe.
The two airlines formed the partnership in August 2018 –10 weeks before KQ introduced direct flights to New York— and have been expanding it since then.
Codeshare, in which participating airlines agree to carry each other’s customers, helps carriers to expand their reach without incurring additional investment in aircraft and staff.
Airlines have various arrangements for paying each other in such agreements, including ceding a portion of a customer’s fare to the carrier operating the flight.
Some of the benefits for customers include easier travel, including pre-arranged connecting flights.
Delta’s customers, for instance, will be able to connect from the carrier’s daily New York-JFK-Accra flights with one ticket and checked-through baggage.
The enhanced codeshare deal with Delta adds to other partnerships that KQ has signed with other airlines to grow its reach.
Last month, it inked a partnership with Africa World Airlines, a West Africa regional carrier operating out of Ghana, in a move aimed at extending its reach to the continent’s west coast.
The agreement provides passengers with flight connections from KQ's network to various points through Accra including Kumasi, Takoradi, Lagos, and Abuja.
