Four African airlines are considering forming an airline alliance. Simple Flying has learnt that this would be in order to take on Ethiopian Airlines' unstoppable growth. The four airlines in talks are Air Mauritius, Kenya Airways, Rwandair, in addition to South African Airlines. South African Airlines has been under a lot of pressure lately, needing constant support from the South African government. Kenya Airways' luck hasn't been much better as the airline has seen three consecutive years of losses. The alliance would be launched before next March according to reports.
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Why Form An Alliance
Airline alliances have traditionally been used as a tool to help combat competition. The idea is that each airline looks out for the others along the lines of "many hands make light work". Through partnerships, airlines are able to offer flights all around the world, even if they don't themselves fly there. The are currently three big alliances, including OneWorld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam. Despite the aim and objective of these partnerships, Qatar is repeatedly threatening to leave the OneWorld alliance. OneWorld themselves recently welcomed their first African airline, Royal Air Maroc.
Taking on Ethiopian
The purpose of the new alliance would be to help combat Ethiopian Airlines' grasp on the African Continent. Ethiopian is the flag carrier of Ethiopia. While other African airlines appear to be struggling, Ethiopian is doing surprisingly well. Just last week the airline started flying to Moscow and Manchester, while also offering the first direct flight to Africa from Los Angeles. Additionally, the airline has had great involvement in a number of smaller African airlines. Ethiopian owns major shares in both Chad and Zambia, having helped the local governments set up both. Ethiopian is a member of the Star Alliance following an invitation from German flag carrier Lufthansa.
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A Joint Venture
Kenya Airways' chairman, Michael Joseph, said that a joint venture had already been discussed with South African Airways. AllAfrica reports his comments as: "We have opened discussions with other airlines on joint venture partnerships. We have started discussions with South African Airways that could see us join forces on aircraft repairs and route joint ventures."
He reportedly added: "we will see deeper co-operation between the four airlines on all aspects of their business. We are going to see realignments in terms of how they compete on both overlapping non-stop routes, and overlapping connecting routes." At the same time, South African Airlines recently expanded its codeshare agreement with Emirates Airlines.
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