Jambojet, the low-cost carrier, aims for KES 10 billion in revenue this year, riding on tourism’s post-pandemic recovery, an improving economy, and crude oil price stability.
Jambo Jet CEO Karanja Ndegwa stated that the airline made KES 7.5 billion in revenue last year, representing a 42 per cent gross profit. The carrier also intends to increase its domestic market share from 47 per cent to more than 50 per cent by 2023.
“If you looked at Jambojet financials when we were doing Kigali (Rwanda) and Entebbe (Uganda) routes, our figures were KES 5.6 billion. In 2022, without those regional routes, we have managed to cross KES 5.6 billion, and we target to make KES 10 billion this year. That alone tells us that if we continued with those regional routes, we would not have achieved this revenue figure.” said Ndegwa during an interview at Jambo Jet offices.
Jambojet, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways (KQ), operates seven DASH 8-400 plane models, four of which seat 78 passengers and three of which seat 82 passengers.
Mr Ndegwa hinted that the carrier would launch flights to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2021 and expand to two regional routes this year.
“We have two new routes we are looking at. The board has approved and we have already made the applications. Now we are waiting for the government to finalise the applications with the other countries so that we launch them between the second and third quarter,” he said.
Locally, they have no plans of adding more routes, including the new Kakamega route, as it is of high altitude compared to the coast and has fewer passengers.
Ndegwa stated that domestic travel has been performing well, with over one million passengers passing through the Coast route last year.
“2022 was a good year, but it was still difficult because we were still dealing with Covid-19 restrictions and the Russia-Ukraine war and the fuel cost was 94% over budget, and the dollar shot up about 28%,” he added.
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