Wednesday November 24 was a joyful occasion for Kenya Airways in Johannesburg!
It was the official opening of the airline’s plush new Johannesburg office on the fourth floor of 165 West Street in the heart of the business hub of Sandton, Johannesburg.
Kenya Airways’ Group MD and CEO, Allan Kilavuka, Acting Chief Commercial & Customer Officer, Julius Thairu, and General Manager Cargo, Dick Murianki, had flown in from Nairobi for the occasion.
As they cut the red ribbon in the doorway and declared the office officially open, cheers and applause rang out from the staff. This was followed by a sumptuous breakfast for the invited members of South Africa’s travel industry.
Speaking to Travel News at the official opening, Kilavuka said the Strategic Partnership Framework signed by SAA and Kenya Airways on November 23 was a key milestone on the road to the co-creation of a Pan African airline group by the year 2023. The idea, a futuristic one, was occasioned by the pandemic. “It was the crisis that forced us to think this way,” he said.
Thairu told Travel News that it was not the intention of the Pan African airline group to stop at just Kenya Airways in East Africa and SAA in South Africa – it might in the future incorporate more partners, especially in West Africa.
