1980s: A leap of faith
In October 1980, two ambitious brothers start up a small business called Key Travel around the corner from King’s Cross Station in central London, UK.
Their plan? To specialise in tailor-made travel for faith groups, charities and NGOs working in humanitarian development and disaster relief.
After getting our first client, we start making connections in faith communities and introduce special “missionary fares” to help our customers spend less to do their work abroad. We proudly negotiate the UK’s first missionary air contract with British Airways.
1990s: Doing good
Our technological advancements skyrocket in line with our growth, and we celebrate opening our first regional office in Manchester, UK, in 1995.
Honouring our commitment to doing good in the world, we launch our Supporting Good Causes initiative in 1997, fundraising and donating to different charities every year.
2000s: Going green
We secure our first university contract and expand into Belgium.
When a tsunami devastates south-east Asia in December 2004, we work hand in hand with airlines to rescue survivors, donate supplies and send relief workers out to help.
We also win several awards, including for our environmental leadership, and design a new Traveller Wellbeing Suite to help employers protect their travellers.
2010s: Safe and steady
We kick off our 30th birthday year by navigating our customers safely through massive air traffic disruption caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
We also branch out across Europe and Africa and open several offices in the USA. We are honoured to receive several awards, including Business Travel Agency of the Year.
Our unique new digital tools – KT: Online and KT: Insights – offer our customers new levels of control over their travel bookings, costs and reporting – including ground-breaking functionality that measures their carbon footprint and drives sustainable travel.
And our partnership with the charity Village by Village to build a health clinic in Ghana blossoms into longer-term fundraising to build new schools for the children of Obom village.
2020s: Simplicity through innovation
Our 40th anniversary year begins by weathering the COVID-19 global pandemic. We put all our efforts into helping our customers with repatriation, changing plans and resuming travel.
Along with flights, hotels and transportation, we now offer our customers state-of-the art digital tools for booking cost-effective travel that respects the planet, along with robust reporting, advice on duty of care, health and wellbeing, and 24/7 service through our brand new Global Travel Hub.