Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and CEO, Allan Kilavoka, has called for deeper collaboration among African countries to revive Ghana’s national carrier and create a more business-friendly aviation sector.
With over 40 years of experience in the aviation industry, Kilavoka believes that consolidating efforts and learning from successful examples, such as the former Afrique and East African Airways, can lead to more viable and competitive national carriers across the continent.
Kilavoka highlighted the importance of implementing the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to promote trade and ease restrictions, such as visas and customs, that hinder connectivity between African countries.
Kenya Airways is also planning to begin flying its Boeing 787 Dreamliner in June and is considering direct flights to Kumasi International Airport in Ghana.
The CEO emphasized Ghana’s significance as an important market for Kenya Airways, expressing the company’s commitment to connecting businesses in the region and beyond.
You can ask me questions on the national carrier in Ghana. My recommendation is that we should do it jointly. We used it for many years in Africa through the Afrique. For example, which is the francophone airline. We used to have it in East African Airways in Kenya but we did a reverse gear.
“While continents are consolidating, we are fragmenting and building small and viable airlines which we need to bring together to consolidate them and make them more viable so that they are able to compete and offer services for African people, and then reduce taxes and the cost of operations.”
In some African countries, it’s difficult for us to get to those countries because of visa restrictions. For example, because of customs restrictions and so on. So what we are saying is that the ratification of the instrument, although done, needs to be implemented, needs to be activated so that the intention of the African Continental Free Trade Area can be actualized. What that would mean for us is that there will be more people moving from one African country to the next country and therefore it’s more business.”