Kenya Airways and Skyports Launch Partnership in Drone Delivery Services

With the pandemic affecting many countries across the world, Kenya included air transport has been severely cut back due to lack of passengers.

As a result, Kenya Airways (KQ) was forced to reduce its commercial flights as per governmental regulations, thus passenger travel is no longer a stable commercial base for the airline

To generate alternative streams of income, Skyports, an advanced air company based in the UK, signed a partnership deal with KQ to set up permanent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations in Kenya.  This comes almost a year after members of parliament legalized the use of drones in the country in April last year.

“Aligning with our purpose of the sustainable development of Africa, this partnership with Skyports will support our diversification plans in drone technology application.” Allan Kilavuka, CEO of KQ said.

He added that the collaboration will give the carrier access to available equipment and established operations that will “lay the foundation for the Kenyan and regional drone market through the drone and emerging aviation technology subsidiary, Fahari Aviation.”

In the coming three months, the main aim of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to explore the probability of using drone services in the medical, logistics, and inspection fields.

Duncan Walker, CEO of Skyports said on his part said that the partnership with Kenya Airways will unlock significant opportunities for drone deliveries and inspections in Kenya. He explained that this will create time and save costs for customers and contribute to the growth of the country’s tech and aviation ecosystem.

“This important partnership underscores the growth potential of Skyports’ tech-agnostic operator approach as a flexible offering which is suited to vary global market requirements.”

Skyports brings to the table its expertise in drone delivery logistics service- Delivery by Skyports- and KQ brings expertise in aviation services.

By Joy Ngoiri