Kenya Airways will suspend domestic flights to Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu from 29th March (Monday) at 12 pm as cessation of movement in and out of Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Nakuru Counties was announced Friday.
This follows President Uhuru Kenyatta announcement as part of the new Covid-19 containment measures necessitated by the third wave of coronavirus infections.
The airline said all its international flights will operate as per schedule.
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“To address our customers’ needs for additional domestic flights, we have increased the number of scheduled flights between Nairobi-Mombasa and Nairobi-Kisumu from Friday evening until Monday 29 at 12 pm,” the airline disclosed.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) reiterated the same saying “Operations of aircraft shall be allowed until the stated deadline, and thereafter cease any movements,” Captain Gilbert Kibe, Director-General said.
Thursday, the national carrier had increased its fleet capacity from Nairobi to Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret and Entebbe from March 18 to April 19 to meet the expected increased travel demand during the Easter holiday.
The airline was to operate 9 weekly non-stop flights with the Nairobi-Eldoret route operating five new weekly flights from the above-said date: Kisumu-Mombasa route operating two weekly flights from March 25 to April 11 and the Entebbe-Mombasa route operating two weekly flights from April 1 to 5.
According to the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics 2019 data, domestic tourists’ bed-nights occupancy accounts for more than 50% of the Bed Occupancy from 2015-2018. The number of domestic tourists bed-nights has increased from 2,948,000 in 2014 to 4,559,000 in 2018.
Kenya Airways posted a historic loss of Ksh.36.2 billion for the fiscal year of 2020.
Its revenues in the year slumped by 59 per cent to Ksh 52.8 billion from Ksh 128.3 billion in 2019.
