Embraer’s Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenya Airways PLC, through its fully owned subsidiary Fahari Aviation. According to a news release from Embraer, the collaboration aims to develop operational models for the wide accessibility of urban air mobility (UAM). In addition, the partnership aims to establish concepts and procedures to safely scale electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Eve will support Fahari Aviation in establishing its UAM network and collaborate on the required urban air traffic management (UATM) procedures and UAM operating environment.

The partnership also will allow Fahari Aviation to support Eve’s aircraft and product development process, which will help guide the integration of UAM with Kenya Airways’ overall operations.

“We are thrilled to partner with Kenya Airways to provide new forms of air mobility throughout the region for both people and goods. The creation of disruptive and widely accessible urban air mobility solutions will help democratize mobility by making it more accessible, affordable and giving communities more options. This partnership will foster long-term mobility strategies throughout the country and region. With our aircraft and aerospace services backing and Kenya Airways’ innovative approach to air mobility, we are enthusiastic about opening this region to more sustainable and community-friendly air access for all,” said Andre Stein, president & CEO of Eve.

“Partnerships are vital in mapping out the future of our airline, something which the global crisis has reinforced. Innovation is a critical element of our long-term sustainability. Fahari Aviation is at the forefront of exploring advanced technologies, with a key focus in aviation, starting with drone technology. With this partnership, we look to develop innovative air mobility solutions for our clients in Kenya and throughout the region,” stated Allan Kilavuka, group managing director and CEO of Kenya Airways.

Source: Aviation Pros

South Africa’s main inbound tourism industry body is lobbying U.K. politicians to remove the country from its so-called coronavirus travel Red List, which it says is incompatible with scientific evidence and is wrecking relations between the nations.

The curbs were based on the discovery of the beta variant in the country even though the incidence of that mutation in South Africa is now minimal, Satsa, which represents 1,350 businesses, said in a presentation dated Aug. 10.

Covid-19 infections in both South Africa and the U.K. are dominated by the delta variant, which was first detected in India. The U.K. accounted for 17% of South Africa’s 2.6 million foreign tourists in 2019, making it the biggest source market.

The placing of South Africa on the Red List about eight months ago means that tourists from the U.K. have to quarantine for 10 days at their own expense in government-selected hotels when they return. Vaccinated travelers from Germany, the U.S., France and other key markets can go home from South Africa without quarantining.

‘Fortress Britain’

The restrictions run counter to the U.K.’s efforts to forge closer links with South Africa in the wake of its exit from the European Union.

“It’s incompatible with the U.K.’s rhetoric about investment in South Africa, trade with South Africa,” Christine Thompson, a government relations and public affairs consultant advising Satsa, said on a webinar. “There is huge degree of resentment. This whole approach is very incompatible with the aspirations of global Britain and is more like fortress Britain.”

The restrictions are jeopardizing an industry that employs 1.5 million people directly and indirectly, and contributes about $5.5 billion to the South African economy annually, Satsa said. They are also threatening the viability of key conservation areas such as national parks, it said.

“Our top priority is to protect public health,” the U.K. Department for Transport said in an emailed response to queries. “Decisions on our traffic-light system are kept under regular review and are informed by the latest risk assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and wider public health factors.”

South Africa has averaged 10,169 Covid-19 infections a day over the last week. The seven-day average in the U.K.. which has a similar population size to South Africa, is about 28,000. Ninety percent of virus genomes sequenced in South Africa in the four weeks to July 24 were the delta variant, Satsa said in its presentation.

Source: BloombergQuint

The United Kingdom on Sunday removed several countries from her Covid-19 red list but again kept Kenya in the category of high-risk nations whose travellers are subjected to strict requirements.

It officially announced that it had taken India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE off the list, added Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway to the green list and moved France to the amber list.

Georgia, Mexico, La Reunion and Mayotte were the latest inclusions in the red zone under which Kenya is classified.

In the UK, since May 7, countries are rated red, amber or green for the coronavirus. Different rules apply to each category.

Before travellers from red list countries go to the UK, they must take a Covid-19 test (except children aged 10 and under), book a quarantine hotel package, including two tests, and complete a passenger locator form. On arrival, they must quarantine in a managed hotel, even if they have been fully vaccinated.

India has registered up to 400,000 positive coronavirus cases in 24 hours and at least 35,000, and has seen coronavirus infections surge due to the Delta variant, far more than anything Kenya has experienced.

In fact, the Asian country’s state of Maharashtra had as of Monday registered 45 cases of the Delta-plus variant per official data from the Indian government.

The Delta-plus variant is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant.

The original Delta variant has several mutations on its spike protein that make it more transmissible, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which lists Delta as a “variant of concern”.

It also has the potential to reduce the effectiveness of some monoclonal antibody treatments and may partially evade the Covid-19 vaccine.

Red List

Speaking in a telephone interview, Foreign Affairs CAS Ababu Namwamba explained that the government will soon provide a way forward.

“We are having meetings from Monday to deliberate on this red list issue. We are very concerned, having been left out, but we shall update you on what we will do next once we are done,” Mr Namwamba assured the public.

In an official response to the Nation, the UK said its decision to place Kenya in the red category had not changed.

“Decisions to introduce or remove countries from the red list are in direct response to the latest scientific and medical data showing an increased risk to UK public health and community transmission,” the spokesperson explained.

“As with all our coronavirus measures, we keep the red list under constant review and our priority remains to protect the health of the UK public.”

In April this year Kenya protested the decision but the UK stood its ground and retained her on the list.

“The decision by the government of the United Kingdom to ‘Red List’ Kenya and to stop all travel from Kenya for those residents in Kenya, and those transiting through Kenya to the United Kingdom has been received with regret and disappointment,” an official response from the Foreign Affairs ministry said.

“This decision by the United Kingdom will have deep and far-reaching consequences on Kenya-United Kingdom trade, travel, tourism and security cooperation.”

The Kenyan government then announced new restrictions.

“In light of the foregoing and in response to the United Kingdom’s unilateral restrictions of travel from Kenya, the following measures will be enforced,” the government said.

The measures included a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all passengers originating from or transiting through UK airports and two PCR Covid-19 tests at their own cost.

Cargo flights between the two countries were exempted from the rules, as well as Kenyan nationals living in the UK or transiting through its airports into Kenya.

Diplomacy

The UK resolved to ‘calm the storm’ by dangling partnerships, sending vaccine donations, which landed in Nairobi last month, and promising to help Kenya fight the pandemic by collaborating in research and genomic sequencing at Kemri.

“Kenya has been allocated 817,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK, with the first batch having arrived last week. The allocation is through bilateral donation and the other half through the Covax facility,” the British spokesperson told Nation.

“On Genomic sequencing, an agreement has been reached with Kemri-Wellcome for collaboration between the UK and Kenya to support genomic sequencing capacity building in-county.”

Source: AllAfrica

Nairobi — Kenya’s aviation sector is gradually arising from the damaging blow inflicted by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Capt. Gilbert Kibe, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) Director General, has reported the average daily aircraft movements at about 550 from 1,045 before COVID-19 outbreak.

The 550 reported daily average aircraft movement recorded comprise of 110 international aircraft and 440 domestic flights.

The traffic however reflects a significant improvement with Kenya and the global aviation sector having been affected at an exponential pace, with passenger traffic in July 2020 recording a decline of 94 per cent in comparison to the same period in 2019 due to the pandemic.

Aircraft traffic movements was lowest in July 2020, standing at 9,185, which decreased by 68 per cent below the levels of July 2019 (28,825).

“Macroeconomic data on recent estimates of demand shocks shows that traffic forecast will return to 2019 levels in 2024 at low growth rate of 3.6 per cent compared to 4.2 per cent before COVID-19,” said the KCAA Director General.

This is based on International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Global forecast.

KCAA added that “international lags are envisaged up to 2023 based on income reduction for leisure travel and countries restrictions to travel.”

However, on the local front, domestic traffic growth is expected to resume to normal in 2022 based on the level of vaccination in the country.

This estimate assumes that there will be no unforeseen challenges that may be posed by new variants of the coronavirus, such as new vicious strains of the Delta variant.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, KCAA instituted several measures to support the aviation sector absorb virus-triggered shocks.

For instance, the Authority offered exemptions and dispensations where full compliance with applicable aviation requirements were not possible, of course without compromising aviation safety and security.

Staring March 31, 2020, expiry periods for Air Operation Certificates (AOCs) were extended for a period of six months, and thereafter, extensions were given on a case-by-case basis until it became possible to resume on-site Inspections.

Similarly, Designate Check Pilots (DCPs) renewals, Flight Simulator Training Device (FSTD) renewals, and Various Regulatory Trainings and Checks recurrent approvals were extended for periods determined on a case-by-case basis.

This would be informed by the submitted Risk Analysis & Alternative means of compliance proposed by the Operator.

Another measure taken was to waive Fees and Charges for services rendered for the period of exemption/dispensation. According to Capt Kibe, since the resumption of Air Travel, Flight Operations department (FOPs) resumed scaled down on-site inspections and Oversight activities, which were undertaken on a case-by-case basis.

Physical interactions were limited and virtual means were encouraged. This has worked well to spur the industry that was in limbo.

Another notable achievement was the re-purposing of the Kenya Airways Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) cabin from carrying Passengers to carrying Cargo, that was supervised and approved by KCAA. This aircraft conversion was a “first” in the world.

Source: Capital FM

The US has issued a fresh travel advisory against Kenya in the wake of a surge in Covid-19 cases, dealing a blow to the recovering tourism sector.

The US has downgraded Kenya from level two to level three, which requires US citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to a destination and reconsider any planned travel.

The advisory comes less than a week after the UK, also retained Kenya on its travel ban list amid rising Covid-19 cases in the country.

The restrictions look set to hurt the vital tourism sector, which is in the middle of the high season period, given the two countries account for over 20 percent of travel to Kenya.

In the half-year to June, visitors to Kenya from the US and UK stood as 65,442 representing 21.4 percent of arrivals.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level Three Travel Health Notice for Kenya due to Covid-19, indicating a high level of Covid-19 in the country,” a statement posted on the US embassy website said.

The US travel restrictions come amid fears that the highly contagious Covid-19 Delta variant may spark the fourth wave of infections in Kenya.

Kenya had 213,756 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 4,211 deaths, with a positivity rate of 14.5 percent as of Tuesday.

Traditionally, the Kenyan high tourist season starts in mid-July and runs till March the following year and is characterised by more international arrivals mainly from the US, UK, Germany, Italy and France.

The US classification of Kenya as Covid-19 high-risk could force many US travellers to either cancel or postpone their trips indefinitely.

In June, the US CDC issued a Level 2 Travel Health Notice for Kenya due to Covid-19, indicating a moderate level of Covid-19 in the country.

In April, the US retained the highest travel advisory on Kenya following what was said was the steep rise in Covid-19 cases in the country, as advised by its CDC.

Source: Business Daily