Frankfurt: Emirates, the world’s largest airline by international traffic, is in talks with low-cost startup FastJet Plc about starting a partnership to help it win a bigger share of the African market.
The talks are at “an early stage,” FastJet Chief Executive Officer Ed Winter said in a statement on Wednesday.
Emirates added to its partnerships in September by tying up with Qantas Airways Ltd. FastJet, which aims to become Africa’s first pan-continental discount airline, began flying from Tanzania last week and plans to extend services to neighbouring Uganda this month and to Kenya in the first quarter.
“We are willing to work with FastJet,” Jean-Luc Grillet, head of commercial operations for Africa at Emirates, said in Wednesday’s statement. “It is an independent carrier and that makes our work easy.”
Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ sales chief, said in November the airline sees no need to follow Gulf competitors in establishing links that could lead to membership of one of the industry’s three global groupings.
FastJet, based in London, is backed by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the UK’s biggest discount airline Easyjet Plc, and wants a fleet of as many as 40 aircraft within five years. It planned to have three leased A319s this month.
