september-2018

SAFARI NJEMA / 81
The Vanilla Islands, an affiliation of Indian
Ocean island nations, are: Madagascar,
Réunion, Comoros, Mayotte, Maldives,
Mauritius and Seychelles.
✈ Kenya Airways operates
non-stop flights to Mauritius
four times per week.
Safari Njema
Shutterstock
Indian Ocean Islands Connected to Africa
Air Austral, Air Madagascar and Kenya
Airways have committed to develop
code share agreements and increase the
connectivity options between the African
continent and the Indian Ocean
countries. The signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding has enabled this
collaboration.
The Nairobi, Antananarivo and Saint
Denis de La Réunion hubs are strategically
well positioned, which means that
each partner benefits by converting one
important hub into three.
“Improving access to the Indian Ocean
islands is the goal that this agreement
seeks to achieve,” said Kenya Airways
Group Managing Director and CEO
Sebastian Mikosz. “This privileged
partnership is consistent with Kenya
Airways’ strategy to improve its
network efficiency and grow through
partners, while focusing on the highyield
corporate and leisure segments.
Our customers will have better access
to Mayotte, La Réunion, domestic
Madagascar and Kenya as well as
other destinations beyond our respective
hubs.”
“The milestones of the consolidation
and development of our respective
presence in the Africa and Indian
Ocean zone have been set. The next
step is to explore the different possible
synergies between our three companies
in various fields such as fleet, maintenance,
training and cargo,” said
Air Madagascar CEO Rolland Besoa
Razafimaharo.