Kenya Airways announced that it would suspend passenger flights to 8 African destinations, reducing its operations because of the pandemic. The flight operator will cease flying from Nairobi to Luanda (Angola), Bamako (Mali), Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), and Mogadishu (Somalia), saying that the uncertainty of the pandemic requires it to reduce operations.
“As with other airlines, Kenya Airways has been severely impacted. Our short and medium-term projections indicate that we must inevitably reduce our operations before we begin to scale up again,” reads a KQ position statement.
The airline will also stop flights Khartoum (Sudan), Djibouti, Blantyre (Malawi) and Maputo (Mozambique) for the immediate future.
The suspension is part of the airline’s recovery strategy, which includes operating a reduce network as it awaits demand to pick up.
Nevertheless, the carrier will offer connecting flights to the destinations via Nairobi through its partners to minimize possible disruptions. Kenya Airways will also maintain cargo services to the cities, as well as offer charter flights on demand.
Kenya Airways Awaits Clearance for Tanzanian Flights
Kenya Airways resumed international flights on August 1, offering flights to 30 destinations after suspending activities for over five months.
The national carrier is still in the dark about the fate of its flights to Tanzania awaiting intergovernmental negotiations. This is after Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) cancelled its flights to the country following exclusion of Tanzania from list of countries whose citizens can enter Kenya.
Globally, airlines have experience a revenue hit, thanks to restrictions of movement to contain the pandemic. While many countries have resumed domestic and international flights, demand is yet to pick up to previous status. International Air Transport Association (IATA) says that air travel could take up to three years to recover to 2019 levels.
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