Kenya Airways was initially East African Airways. You may be wondering why Kenya Airways is abbreviated as KQ and not KA. The relations between the countries however did not last long and led to the collapse of East African Community which subsequently ended East African Airways. In 1977 Kenya Airways was born out of the regional airline-East African Airways. By virtue of being ‘late’ Kenya was assigned the code KQ and it is the reason the Kenyan airline is referred to as KQ and not KA.

Source: Standard Digital June 01, 2016 15:33 UTC