Update, Tuesday 24 February: Qatar Airways’ communications representative in Africa contacted African Business with this statement: “In response to recent speculation in the media, Qatar Airways would like to confirm that it remains focused on delivering value through its strong existing international partnerships and has no interest in Kenya Airways.”
Qatar Airways is in talks to expand its cooperation with Kenya Airways (KQ), including potentially acquiring an equity stake in the cash-strapped airline, as the Doha-based carrier seeks to expand its presence in East Africa, which it has made a strategic priority. In October last year the two airlines announced that they had begun “codesharing” on flights to 19 destinations to expand connectivity between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The codesharing partnership – which allowed both airlines to sell seats on the same flight and benefit from coordinated flight schedules – allowed KQ customers to access 11 destinations via Qatar Airways’ hub in Doha. To strengthen this further, Qatar Airways launched a third daily flight between Doha and Nairobi in October.
Sindy Foster, principal managing partner at aviation consultancy firm Avaero Capital Managers, tells African Business that the partnership is important for Qatar Airways because “Kenya Airways gives reach into African routes and markets that are difficult to serve efficiently from Doha alone, particularly the behind-and-beyond traffic within East, Central and Southern Africa.”
“Nairobi works as a natural aggregation point for that traffic… it’s about using KQ as a gateway into Africa’s secondary and tertiary markets and feeding that demand into a wider global network.”
While precise details of a potential expansion to this partnership are yet to emerge, intergovernmental talks were held between Doha and Nairobi in November in November, with closer cooperation in aviation reportedly one of the areas of focus.
Qatar’s Africa focus
Qatar Airways has invested heavily in the African aviation market in recent years, leading some analysts to raise the prospect of the Qatari airline taking a stake in KQ. In August 2024, Qatar Airways acquired a 25% minority stake in South African carrier Airlink, saying “the investment will further cement its position as a key driver in realising economic and business potential on the African continent.”
In December 2019 Qatar Airways also agreed to purchase a 60% stake in Bugesera International Airport, now under construction in Rwanda. The country’s Development Board forecasts that it will have the capacity to handle 14m passengers a year by 2032.
Qatar Airways has also been engaged in talks with RwandAir for several years over acquiring a potential 49% share in the country’s national airline. Rwandan President Paul Kagame implied in January last year that a deal was about to be concluded. It has not yet come to pass.
Sean Mendis, an African aviation expert, tells African Business that “Qatar has made it very clear that they see a huge need for a strategic partnership in East Africa. They have been pursuing one for a number of years with RwandAir, however they do not really seem to be making progress on that.”
Kenya’s aviation potential
Perhaps partly as a result of this, Mendis notes that Qatar Airways has been shifting its focus towards Kenya. “They have added humongous amounts of capacity into Nairobi – they are flying three wide-body flights a day that have ridiculously large capacity. These operations are probably loss-making but are an attempt to buy market share and brand recognition in Kenya,” he says.
Pursuing closer cooperation or an equity stake in KQ would also make sense given the Kenyan market is significantly bigger than that of Rwanda, Mendis argues. “Of course, the reality is also that Kenya is a huge market in itself, while Rwanda is not,” he adds. “Kenya’s potential to host a successful airline or aviation infrastructure is infinitely bigger. So, if a deal were available, I think Qatar would go for it, but it would need to be the right deal at the right price.”
Debt issues complicate cooperation
In line with President William Ruto’s privatisation drive, Kenya is open to bringing in a strategic international partner and potentially selling more of its remaining 48.9% stake in the carrier. A potential deal is complicated, however, by the difficult financial situation KQ faces. In 2017 it took an $841.6m loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), $525m of which was guaranteed by the Kenyan government, to purchase seven new planes and a new engine
The following year KQ fell into insolvency under the burden of this debt and several smaller debt liabilities to local suppliers. Since then, the collapse of international travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, the weakening of the Kenyan shilling and higher interest rates globally have made the debt pile even less affordable. The increasingly strong performance of competitors such as Ethiopian Airlines has also dented KQ’s competitiveness in Africa.
In 2024 KQ reported a net profit of 5.43bn shillings ($41.9m) for the full year ending 31 December 2024. But its latest results show a net loss of 12.15bn shillings for the first half of 2025. “KQ is effectively government-controlled: it is not the majority shareholder, but it is the single largest shareholder, with a 48.9% stake… while technically the debt is KQ’s, at the end of the day the government will end up having to deal with it one way or the other,” Mendis explains.
“But given the political situation in Kenya right now regarding public finances, that is not something they can afford to do politically.”
Gulf airline wars
A deal could remain attractive to Qatar Airways given the significance it has placed on the African aviation market. It launched in 1994, almost a decade after Dubai-based airline Emirates. While Doha has grown significantly as a global transit hub – with a record-breaking 54.3m passengers going through Hamad International Airport in 2025 – it still lags behind Dubai, which saw over 95m passengers in the same year.
The strength of Emirates in the Middle East has therefore forced Qatar Airways to seek opportunities in other markets where competition is not as fierce. “Emirates is weak in Africa because of its fleet type – it does not have anything smaller than a 150-seat 777, which makes it very hard for it to serve some of the smaller African markets,” Mendis says.
“Qatar Airways doubled down on Africa, particularly during the pandemic when Emirates was slower in restarting services. Around that time, they actually stole an Emirates executive, Hendrik Du Preez, as their vice-president for Africa,” he adds.
“Hendrik led an aggressive strategy focused less on short-term losses and on building market share in Africa, particularly in key markets like Nigeria, where Emirates had traditionally been stronger. They took a lot of risks, but it worked for them.
“Africa in general has been a very important market for Qatar Airways because it is one of the few markets where they see themselves – because of fleet, politics, and first-mover advantage – to have a real advantage over Emirates in particular,” Mendis says.
Changing perceptions
While KQ’s financial difficulties remain substantial, Foster is optimistic that these recent developments could help the airline to reclaim some of the narrative and start changing perceptions. “None of KQ’s challenges are new, but what has changed is the story around them. Suddenly, the airline is being talked about as a strategic asset rather than just a problem case, and that shift in perception matters,” she says. This shift has perhaps been most felt on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, where KQ’s share prices has risen by more than 55% since the start of 2026.
“These conversations reinforce the idea that KQ is strategically important, even if it’s financially fragile. That matters: it’s harder to sideline an airline once it’s viewed as regionally significant rather than just nationally troubled.”