Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) is exploring a partnership with SAA Technical (SAAT), the maintenance arm of South African Airways, according to Group Managing Director and CEO, Allan Kilavuka.

In an interview with Aviation Week, Kilavuka disclosed that he sees an opportunity to collaborate with SAA on MRO services, aiming to scale up Kenya Airways' maintenance capabilities and potentially make it a standalone business unit.

He said that around 65% of Kenya Airways' internal MRO division currently handles the airline's own maintenance needs, while third-party carriers account for some 15%. The unit services aircraft of airlines such as LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, RwandAir, and Kenya's Astral Aviation. Kilavuka believes that partnering with SAA, which has spare capacity and skilled personnel, could help expand these services further.

"We share information, in terms of support. We want to go one step further and look at their technical [business] because they have a very good technical unit there," he said. "They have the tools and the personnel to help us really scale up. We have the capacity to grow, but for us to grow we need tools and space and even more personnel. So if we work collaboratively with South African Airways, we can provide that. We're not working with them at the moment."

He added that diversification is one of Kenya Airways’ key pillars for business sustainability. "There are different pillars, different streams for diversification. Pillar one is growing MRO," he said.

During a recent webinar, SAA Technical CEO Wellington Nyuswa also expressed interest in such a collaboration, noting that SAA's capacity for third-party work had grown post-COVID after downsizing the fleet. "Look at SAA plus Kenya [Airways], for instance. That collaboration is one of the many that we actually need," he said.

Kenya Airways has been punting a wider strategic partnership with SAA and other African carriers in the form of a pan-African alliance since 2021. Kenya Airways and SAA signed a strategic partnership framework in November of that year, but the initiative stalled during post-pandemic restructuring. Kilavuka is hoping to resume strategic partnership talks with SAA imminently or roll out strategic cooperation with another African carrier by 2027. Both airlines recently returned to profitability and both are planning to bring in equity partners to help finance fleet renewal and growth.