German airline, Lufthansa has reiterated its commitment to launch flights to the Kenyan capital following a visit from H.E Michael Derus – Deputy Head of Mission for the German Embassy.
Derus paid a courtesy visit to Kenya’s Tourism Cabinet Secretary last week. They discussed the commencement by Lufthansa to deploy larger aircraft in Nairobi from September 2016.
The flyer says it will deploy the wide-bodied Airbus A340-300 between Frankfurt and Nairobi four times a week beginning September this year, up from the current three weekly flights. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry’s regulator, has stated that demand is holding up in Africa despite the underperformance of Nigeria and South Africa.
The Association added that East Africa is delivering above average economic growth when the rest of the world is struggling to grow. Lufthansa, one of Europe’s biggest airlines, resumed direct passenger flights to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from late October 2015 after an 18-year absence from Nairobi. Lufthansa General Manager for Kenya and Ethiopia Tobias Ernst said demand has been rising in the nearly nine month period since resumption, thus prompting the expansion plans.
Last year, the German carrier said the Airbus A340-300 will fly between Frankfurt and Nairobi four times a week in winter 2015/16 and five times a week from December 11. LH 590 will leave Lufthansa’s Frankfurt hub every morning on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (and on Friday from December 11, 2015 to the end of January 2016) and will reach Nairobi in the evening after a journey of more than eight hours.
“The return aircraft will take off from Nairobi as a night flight in the late evening and lands the morning of the following day at Frankfurt Airport. The flight times are thus optimally aligned to flights from Germany, Europe and the North Atlantic. Lufthansa expects great interest and high demand especially among leisure travelers,” the airline said at the time.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commonly known as Lufthansa, is the largest German airline and, when combined with its subsidiaries, also the largest airline in Europe, both in terms of passengers carried and fleet size.
Source; X-News Kenya
