Normally, when seeking an abbreviation for a company or business, the first letter of the first name is joined with the first letter (s) of the next word (s).
But this is not the same with Kenya Airways.
Have you ever asked yourself why Kenya Airways is code-named 'KQ' and not KA?
For starters, Kenya Airways was initially known as East African Airways; jointly operated by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
East African Airways was founded in 1946 and its headquarters was stationed in Nairobi.
It was then dissolved in 1977 amid deteriorating relations between the three countries.
Kenya Airways was set up in 1977 from the remains of East African Airways.
The airline was abbreviated as KQ and not 'KA' because the code-name KA was already assigned to another airline.
All over the world, unique code names for all international airlines are assigned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
During that time, Korea already had its aviation industry running as Korean Air.
By the time Kenya Airways was seeking the code name KA, IATA had already assigned it to Korea Air.
Kenya, therefore, had to take the code-name KQ and not 'KA'.
