Business
Kenya airways, Ethiopian Airlines and South Africa Airways merger on the horizon?
Kenya Airways believes a merger between itself, Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways is necessary to create a single large carrier representing Africa and able to compete globally. And Africa’s numerous regional airlines are looking to these three big carriers to support their growth and improve the industry’s safety performance on the continent.
Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni told delegates at the 44th African Airlines Association (AFRAA) annual general meeting in Johannesburg on Nov. 19 that his airline should come together with fellow sub-Saharan carriers Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways to create a large African airline able to take the fight back to foreign carriers, which dominate 80 percent of intercontinental traffic to and from Africa.
Newly emerged Gulf giants (the Emirates, Qatar Airways, Ethihad, and Turkish Airlines) as well as the legacy carriers from Europe, are all keenly eyeing the continent’s air traffic potential.
The merger proposal was accepted in principle by Tewolde GebreMariam CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. Size is an important factor in the aviation sector which depends on economies of scale he noted. As far as Ethiopian Airlines is concerned the idea of a major pan-African Airway is considered positively said Tewolde.