British Airways has severed ties with ailing Kenyan carrier Regional Air which this month was forced to suspend all flights for six days over a cash-flow crisis, the two companies said on Monday.
”British Airways has terminated its franchise agreement with Air Kenya Aviation Ltd, trading as Regional Air,” the London-based aviation giant said in a statement released by its local public relations firm.
”It is with regret that we have terminated our franchise relationship with … Regional Air, following their suspension last week of flights operated as part of our franchise agreement,” Roger Maynard, director of BA’s investment and joint ventures, said in the statement.
An official with Regional Air, which announced a partial resumption of suspended flights over the weekend, said the franchise agreement ”was terminated last week”.
Under the 2001 franchise agreement, Regional Air had been using BA’s flag and flight numbers to its destinations in East and Southern Africa which include Khartoum, Asmara, Djibouti, Johannesburg, Lilongwe, Lusaka and Harare.
All those flights were suspended on April 9 due to ”operational circumstances,” stranding hundreds of passengers throughout the region including some on BA code-share flights.
On Sunday, though, Regional Air resumed twice weekly flights to Asmara and Khartoum and said that it hoped to re-start service to Djibouti ”in the near future”.
”Meanwhile, we are continuing to restructure Regional Air and we are planning to fly to other destinations in due course,” the firm’s chief executive Don Smith said in a statement.
Industry sources say the Kenyan-owned airline has been hit by cash flow problems for some time, particularly as it faces increased competition from rapidly expanding Kenya Airways, the country’s flag carrier. – Sapa-AFP