South African Airways and its East African counter part Kenya Airways are not going to merge, SAA spokesperson Vimla Maistry clarified on Monday. This, News24 reports, follows a media report in The Standard, one of the largest newspapers in Kenya, that reported on a prospective merger between the airlines under the headline “Kenya Airways, SAA to merge, President Uhuru says”. “The plan is to leverage each other’s networks for the benefit of customers – extensive codeshare for example – and leverage operational efficiencies between the two, but the brands will operate independently,” said Maistry. Kenya Airways also labelled the report by The Standard as inaccurate, saying: “Kenya Airways and SAA are not merging but rather consolidating their assets with the long-term goal of forming a Pan-African Airline Group”.
