- Chidozie Uzoezie
Seamless Connection: Kenya Airways Codeshares with Alitalia

There are now more choices and travel options for passengers travelling between Europe and Africa as Kenya Airways and Alitalia have entered into an extensive codeshare agreement. Under the codeshare, Alitalia will apply its 'AZ' code on Kenya Airways destinations including Mombasa, Kisumu, Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo, Brazzaville and Dar Es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. Other destinations are Douala, Johannesburg, Kigali, Khartoum, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Lagos, Maputo and Nampula, Moroni-Hahaya and Seychelles. Similarly, Kenya Airways will place its 'KQ' code on Alitalia's services from Rome to 16 Italian destinations including Brindisi, Bologna, Bari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Lamezia Terme, Milan Malpensa, Naples, Palermo, Pisa, Reggio Calabria, Turin, Trieste, Venice and Verona. The codeshare deal also covers 9 Alitalia's European destinations including Athens, Barcelona, Casablanca, Geneva, Larnaca, Madrid, Malaga, Malta and Valencia. Customers can fly seamlessly to their destinations with a single ticket, checking-in at the airport of departure, and collecting their checked-through baggage at the end of their trip in the arrival airport. Under the new codeshare services, Kenya Airways and Alitalia customers will have the opportunity to earn and redeem miles on the entire network operated by both airlines. The new codeshare flights are already available for booking for travels from 12 June 2019 when Kenya Airways will inaugurate its four-weekly service between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Rome. This new commercial partnership will boost business travel and tourism between Italy and Kenya, giving tourists and businessmen more travel options and better flight schedules.
Kenya Airways is a leading African airline flying to 53 destinations, 43 of which are in Africa. It has a fleet of 32 aircraft which are some of the youngest in Africa including the Boeing 787. Alitalia is Italy's largest airline. It currently flies to 77 destinations, including 22 Italian and 55 international destinations, with over 3,600 weekly flights and 102 routes.