Sunday, July 6, 2025

In a breakthrough in the history of East African aviation, Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to underline their intention to form a strategic partnership. The partnership will help to strengthen the link from Qatar’s award-winning Hamad International Airport to the main East African capital and business hub cities, namely Nairobi and Mombasa. The MoU was signed in Doha by the Qatar Airways Group CEO, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, and Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Allan Kilavuka.

This partnership, with its wide codeshare agreement, is a reflection of airlines’ collective efforts to expand connectivity between Qatar and Kenya through air connections. The recently inked agreement will see Qatar Airways expand its Doha-Nairobi daily operations with the addition of a third daily operation in codeshare with Kenya Airways. The move, aimed at servicing growing demand, will offer more choices to passengers traveling to and from the region of East Africa.

The partnership will also initiate a new connection that ties Doha to Mombasa. From the forthcoming winter season, the route will be flown by Kenya Airways while Qatar Airways will sell and promote them. These initiatives will provide passengers with smooth connectivity and linkages from any part of the world to East Africa through one of the globe’s most popular airports, i.e., Hamad International.

Both airlines are also looking at the bigger picture with plans to collaborate in various other areas in addition to passenger services. These include increasing efforts in cargo, airport, and ground handling services, product development, loyalty programs, procurement, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services. By growing in these areas, both airlines aim to build a stronger, more integrated partnership that will pay greater dividends to travelers and businesses and the worldwide aviation industry in general.

This collaboration is part of Qatar Airways Group CEO Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer’s strategic move to further solidify the carrier’s connection with the continent of Africa. “This partnership is yet another demonstration of our expanding link with the African continent. Today’s agreement, coming on the day we celebrate our 20th year of operations in Kenya, serves to demonstrate our ongoing efforts to enhance Africa’s growing aviation and economic ecosystem,” said Al-Meer. The collaboration is part of Qatar Airways’ broader vision to enhance Africa’s growing aviation market and contribute to improving the region’s global connectivity.

Kenya Airways, also branded as “The Pride of Africa,” has seen a tremendous transformation and has returned to profitability this year for the first time in over a decade. Group CEO and Managing Director Allan Kilavuka emphasized the strategic importance of the new partnership. “This partnership is timely and comes at the exact right time and is in perfect alignment with our solid turnaround strategy that has seen Kenya Airways return to profit. It will accelerate our efforts to grow tourism and cargo operations to position them as key drivers of economic growth for Kenya and the broader East African region,” said Kilavuka.

Though the worldwide impacts from the pandemic still linger in the aviation industry, alliances like the one between Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways hold much promise in expanding tourism and trade. Through the expansion in the number of direct flights and cargo through air means, the airlines seek to enhance people and cargo transportation within Africa and the Middle East and to and from the world at large.

The added frequencies in the Doha-Nairobi routes and the direct Mombasa-Doha route will benefit both leisure and business travelers. In addition to this, the airlines will have their integrated networks to offer more effective and cheaper ways to move cargo by air, which is essential in promoting trade progress in East Africa.

The new partnership also benefits both airlines’ missions to contribute to the long-term economic development of East Africa and add to the region’s businesses, tourism, and trade. Through greater connectivity to the world and within East Africa, Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways can unleash the region’s aviation market to its full potential.

Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways have long had reputations as leaders in their field. Qatar Airways has also had a reputation for luxury and first-class service and has had its fair share of awards and recognition to date, most recently being voted World’s Best Airline in 2025 by Skytrax. Qatar Airways also has an extensive network within Africa with over 170 weekly departures to 30 African cities.

Kenya Airways has also been selected as Africa’s Leading Airline and Business Class by the World Travel Awards for four consecutive years. Its fine standing, combined with the new strategic partnership with Qatar Airways, has put the carrier in a good position to continue its prime position in Africa’s skies.

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