The Kenya Airways’s plans for direct flight to Tel-Aviv have been boosted after Israeli national carrier was given the green light to fly over Sudan airspace on Saturday.

KQ was to start nonstop flights between Kenya and Israel last year but the plans were dealt a blow after Sudan restricted the national carrier from using its airspace to Israel because of diplomatic differences between Tel-Aviv and Khartoum.

KQ chairman Michael Joseph said they are now reviewing the plansto introduce Tel-Aviv route following the latest development.

“We have noted some news about overfly rights and we will review our plans. I don’t know when we can start but we are evaluating the possibility,” said Mr Joseph in an interview with Shipping & Logistics.

The Kenya Airways was scheduled to start weekly flights to Tel Aviv in March this year but the plans appear to have been scuttled by political differences between Khartoum and Tel Aviv that saw Sudan impose blockade on flights going or moving out of Israel.

The airliner has to secure permission from the Sudanese government to allow the airline overfly its airspace.

The new development comes at a time when Uganda and Israel have agreed on direct flights between the two countries, in what is likely to heighten competition in the region once KQ embarks on that route. RwandAir already flies to Tel-Aviv.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Uganda this month for bilateral talks where he announced that his country was ready to start direct flight between Tel-Aviv and Entebbe.

RwandAir started direct flights to Tel-Aviv last year becoming the first airline from East Africa to make inroads in Israel as the Kenya Airways’ inaugural flight plan remained on ice.

The Rwanda airline commenced its three weekly flights to Israel in June last year operating Boeing 737-800 from its hub in Kigali.

KQ officials were in Israel in June last year where they met with the Israeli transportation minister Yisrael Katz to discuss the plan.

The airline had been given the green light to start direct flights to Israel only for Sudanese government to apply brakes. Mr Netanyahu said Israel airline flew over Sudan airspace on Saturday, terming the move as a milestone for the country. The move implies that the new Sudanese government is warming up to better relationship with Israel, following the ousting of Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir last year.

Tel Aviv has long been suspicious of Khartoum, which was traditionally seen as a close ally to Iran. But in 2017, Khartoum joined Sunni Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in severing its ties with the Islamic Republic.

KQ has been restructuring its network, opening new destinations, adding frequencies and shifting gateways as it seeks to offer passengers travelling between continents the best possible connectivity and the shortest routes.

Regional airlines have been pushing for open skies policy to allow national carriers to move without restrictions to other countries, but this is yet to be achieved. African nations have moved to protect their airlines from stiff competition, putting in doubt whether the dream of open sky policy will be achieved.

According to the World Bank, Africa is home to 12 percent of the world’s population, but it accounts for less than one per cent of the global air service market.

Part of the reason for Africa’s under-served status, according the World Bank study, is because many African countries are restricting their air services markets to protect the share held by state-owned air carriers.

Our Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/shipping/Direct-KQ-flights-to-Tel-Aviv/4003122-5460414-68evepz/index.html

Budget carrier Jambojet has frozen plans to fly to Mogadishu after Somali authorities failed to grant the airline a morning landing slot.

The carrier planned to depart Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 6am and fly back to Nairobi at 9.25am to allow the aircraft to be deployed on other local routes in Kenya.

The move to start Somali flights follows increased demand on the route as the airline stretches its wings in a move expected to boost trade with the Horn of Africa nation.

“We have put the plans on hold as we review whether the route will fit within our current operations. We will advise once we have a way forward,” said Allan Kilavuka, chief executive Jambojet.

The carrier said it was denied the morning slot as Somali authorities claimed there was a lot of traffic during that period.

Jambojet was to start flights to Mogadishu last year in November but the plans were put on ice with the launch date pushed to March. The budget airline has been on an expansion spree and recently expanded its fleet with two brand new De Havilland Dash 8 – 400. The no-frills carrier, founded by Kenya Airways five years ago, ferries more than 700,000 passengers a year within Kenya and to neighboring Uganda after an aggressive expansion aimed at first time flyers who would normally take a bus.

Like budget carriers in Europe and South Africa, Jambojet passengers only pay for seats.

The airline charges extra for services such as baggage and meals, allowing ticket prices to compete with buses and trains.

It had planned to charge Sh24, 470 for one way route to Mogadishu. It now flies to two international destinations that include Entebbe and Kigali. The carrier also plans to expand to South Sudan, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros and Malawi.

KCAA previously granted the low-cost airline a three-year licence to fly to Addis Ababa, Dar-es-Salaam, Zanzibar, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Kigali, Juba, Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Goma, Kisangani (DRC), Moroni (Comoros) and Lilongwe.

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Jambojet-Mogadishu-flights/4003102-5460640-qf9m5k/index.html

Trade between China and Kenya has been dealt a further blow after the suspension of the only remaining direct flights between the Asian country and Nairobi amid fears of the spread of the novel coronavirus, which had by Sunday infected 37,198 people in China alone.

China Southern Airlines has cancelled all its four weekly direct flights only 10 days after Kenya Airways halted direct flights into Guangzhou, China. This came against the backdrop of reports that 2,600 new cases had been reported by Sunday.

China Southern Airlines has also frozen travel reservations on the carrier till end of June. The outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in China has resulted in travel restrictions into and within the Asian giant. By Friday the death toll in mainland China reached 637.

Following the service changes, the Chinese airline will stop the two weekly Nairobi-Changsha service, a route it launched in June last year on the back of increased travel demands from China into Africa. The airline operated the weekly service on Sundays and Wednesdays. The airline is also set to stop the Monday and Friday direct flights on the Nairobi-Guangzhou route.

“The last Changsha flight will be on February 9 (Sunday) and the Guangzhou will be on February 10 (Monday) and this changes will last up to March 28,” said the airlines marketing manager, Belinda Agwena. “The cancellation of the flights has largely been driven by the need to combat coronavirus.”

Passengers will have the option of using airlines with connecting hubs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia to travel to Kenya or China.

The decision by China Southern Airlines and KQ follows the decision by a host of other airlines to suspend or reduce flights frequency into China.

Air Canada, American Airlines, Air Asia, Japan Airlines, British Airways and Qatar Airways are among the more than 20 major airlines that have suspended flights to and from China.

The cancellation of the direct flights is set to further escalate supply chain disruptions from the lockdown of the “world’s factory”. Coronavirus has also seen China order the closure of most of the factories in the affected regions, a move that is also impacting on trade in Kenya.

Last week, vendors reported delays as the Chinese suppliers blamed the lockdown for delayed delivery of the items.

Over the last decade, China has grown to become Kenya’s largest trade partner and biggest bilateral lender with imports value hitting Sh324.9 billion in 2019.

Parcel and logistics firm, China Post’s Express Mail Service (EMS), whose service coverage extends to Kenya and 219 other countries across the globe, warned its customers to expect late deliveries owing to delays in transportation as it strived to meet safety measures.

Chinese e-commerce Kilimall said it would delay orders, although it attributed this to the Lunar New Year festivities, which were extended to contain the spread of the virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has pledged to convene a global research and innovation forum next week to mobilise international efforts to combat the viral disease.

Our Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Chinese-airline-suspends-direct-Nairobi-flights-/3946234-5450112-format-xhtml-r50txmz/index.html

Digitalization has revolutionized the way airline products and services are merchandised, marketed, and distributed. Today, airlines and travel agencies have improved tools to sell and distribute their products to tech-savvy consumers, delivering on the industry’s promise of a modern and personalized flight shopping experience.

Recent retailing agreements have given a new lease on life to the airfare clearinghouse. “The immediate impact of the deals is that it’s a flashing signal to the industry that airlines have finally reached an inflection point in how they distribute airfares and related products and services,” said Sean O’Neill, travel tech editor for Skift.

These modernization efforts are further supported by IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) program and ATPCO’s Next Generation Storefront (NGS) which play a critical role in ensuring that airlines and agency systems can seamlessly interface, ensuring agencies will soon be able to widely provide differentiated, rich content and competitive offers to their travelers.

But despite all the progress that’s been made to transform the airline digital retailing space on the customer-facing side, a looming problem threatens to limit the potential benefits of this innovation for travel agencies. That’s because the back-office business processes surrounding incentive programs supporting this new digitized airfare retailing and merchandising model remain surprisingly analog. In fact, many travel agencies still rely on spreadsheets and manual entry of transactions, limiting their ability to monitor revenue and impacting profitability.

Why is this analog record-keeping process such a problem in this new era of digital retailing? And what solutions might travel agencies use to address it?

Many travel agencies thrive on a combination of commissions and incentive offerings when selling airfare, and in some cases, this can be up to seven times more than what an agency may make via fees from clients. Airlines’ sales incentives based on sales targets or market share growth are also one of the primary vehicles for travel resellers to obtain this revenue. For travel agencies, these incentives are important and can have a considerable impact on their profit margins on an annual basis.

These programs also often include collateral support in the form of funding for marketing, along with access to special flight amenities like preferred/priority access, upgrades, waivers, and favors. In fact, these programs are a key component in helping most travel agencies keep their fees and charges to clients and companies at reasonable rates.

Here’s an example of how the incentive process between an airline and agency works: A travel agency might have an incentive agreement with the airline that provides a payout of two percent of sales and access to marketing support if their overall revenue target of $5 million in tickets is achieved over the course of a calendar year.

With the right tools to monitor progress toward this $5 million goal, the agency can continuously reassess throughout the year, making small but timely changes to ensure it hits the goal. This might include internally increasing the visibility of products that count toward their revenue target, or running promotional campaigns with current and prospective clients as well as employees.

Unfortunately, the travel agencies’ current process for monitoring their progress relies on spreadsheets and paper forms, a largely manual system that does not update with new information in real-time. This makes it even more challenging for travel agencies to effectively track and monitor their performance toward goals.

The challenge of keeping track intensifies as carrier-agent programs become increasingly complex, with airlines incentivizing different types of products at varying levels, and more so with the rise in ancillary sales. Different push actions related specific RBDs (the reservation booking designators or booking classes), or market share and annual or quarterly targets, are helping to make contracts more dynamic and flexible. But travel agencies continue to work with decentralized and disparate systems and processes with limited capabilities to track target reach or measure performance in a timely and efficient manner.

“Tracking airlines’ sales incentives today is not only hard, it’s virtually impossible – a travel agency typically gets hundreds of varying terms across agreements from tens of airlines, each with a different structure, conditions, dates, numbers and RBDs. This also changes from the different types of agencies between the TMCs and OTAs,” said Mickey Haslavsky, CEO of Avian, a software solution provider.

It is ironic that at the moment when the consumer airline distribution marketplace is undergoing a massive revitalization, the travel agency methods, technology, and systems which drive and support this revitalization feel frozen in time. At best, agencies may receive digital reports from some airlines. Even then, they must visit different portals and attempt to compare conflicting programs. With new standards on how performance is calculated and measured across carriers, this can be very challenging.

Haslavsky said: “Some still adhere to gigantic excel sheets and manage everything themselves without having any proper system or hub to capture accurate data. Technology has been widely accepted in nearly all aspects of the travel industry with regards to client facing interactions. However, it has been very neglected with regards to internal agency usage for managing incentive programs. By the end of the day, no matter how many excel sheets you have, tracking flown and market share incentive plans requires technology.

One firm helping to change this travel agency status quo is Avian, a technology company that provides new incentive contracts analysis technology to allow travel agencies greater insight and control over their incentive contracts with airlines.

The online software platform allows travel agencies to easily scan airline incentive agreements by means of a simple drag-and-drop experience with no manual filing. It also connects agents to the BSP (IATA’s Billing Settlement Plan), ARC (Airlines Reporting Corporation), and the GDSs (Global Distribution System), making it faster and easier to get a real-time overview of their revenue and performance from airfare commission and incentive programs.

This solution also makes it easier for travel agencies to forecast complicated calculations like the company’s flown revenue (a net revenue from consumers who bought their tickets from a travel agency, got on board, and actually flew). Flown revenue is recognized as a key metric to manage performance versus program targets in a timely manner. Yet tracking flown revenue using manual calculation methods is often cumbersome, highly inaccurate, time-intensive and costly.

Haslavsky said: “The flown data is processed via revenue accounting standards, stored in an airline’s database, and filtered per travel agency, so it takes time for the airline (from 15 to 90 days) to update the agency on their true performance. Even when airlines do provide reporting, agencies must process each one individually to get a holistic view of performance across their business.”

In the old analog model, critical performance data never reached the travel agency in time, leaving them unable to make meaningful pricing or marketing decisions based on the insights. This forced many agents to rely on guesswork to determine whether they would hit or miss their sales targets. With incentives being such an integral part of their agency revenue, it’s surprising that this process remained unchanged until now.

But now, new digitized incentive tracking solutions like Avian are helping travel agencies optimize the process they use to track flown revenue in real-time and manage contract variables. Best of all, AI algorithms like those developed by Avian can go one step further, helping recommend strategies agencies can use to further improve revenues from incentives and increase profits.

“The system allows them to pinpoint specific sales targets, track performance, and steer sales into an upward curve by making sales predictions and our API will allow any OTA and TMC to optimize their revenue from incentives and commissions,” Haslavsky said.

“It is often difficult to keep track and organize this vital piece of our business and Avian has been a tremendous help with this. They have made back-end and upfront incentives tracking sync with their unique software. It lets us know exactly when and what we need to know relating to any of our contracts at any time with a few clicks of the mouse,” said Steven Borukhin, chief business development officer of DownTown Travel.

“This technology brings real innovation into the airline-agency relations by applying the idea of a free marketplace to the formerly exclusively bilateral field of commercial agreements,” said Ondrej Cikanek, vice president of content at Kiwi.com.

The software can also help agencies gain new insights into their supplier relationships and ROI/negotiations for airfare sales. Avian does this by presenting all airline incentive plans in one place with a standard format to compile their different terms and conditions. Having a centralized and consistent view of these plans’ terms will help travel agencies better monitor their different revenue streams, reach their sales targets, and increase profit margins.

With digitalization transforming the airline distribution landscape, Haslavsky said Avian aims to bring deep technology into revenue optimization for travel agencies to ensure that agreements are optimized and their business continues to meet the challenges of the ongoing digital transformation.

Our Source: https://skift.com/2020/01/21/how-travel-agencies-can-maximize-commissions-and-boost-profitability-in-a-new-era-of-airfare-retailing/

Electronic Visa (E-Visa) services are becoming the preferred mode of seeking travel approval by the modern traveler, industry trends indicate, as year-on-year overseas travelers continue to grow.

According to VFS Global (Visa Facilitation Services Global), breakthroughs in technology coupled with improved internet connectivity and speed are allowing ‘armchair booking’ of visas, flight and hotels at the click of a button.

Airports have been rushing to upgrade their technological solutions to ensure biometric check-ins of travelers in the near future.

E-Visa services allow customers to submit their visa applications using just a mobile phone as it does not require a visit in person to the application centre as part of the submission process.

“The Electronic Visa is emerging as a convenient and revolutionary service in the travel domain as it now offers the customers the unmatched convenience of applying for their visa from the location of their choice,” notes VFS Global notes in its report released yesterday.

The world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, sees sees business and leisure tourism pushing uptake of e-Visa across 180 locations where it operates including Kenya.

“Travelers on short visits and trips will be the biggest drivers to uptake of E-Visa,” Regional Group COO Jiten Vyas said.

According to the firm, there is growing interest among governments across the world who aim to liberalise their visa regimes to make their respective countries both tourist friendly and business friendly destinations in this digital day and age.

Kenya has been enhancing issuance for visa’s on arrival to attract tourists and ease entry into the country, which includes leveraging on highly secure and smart solutions.

Today, 44 countries around the world offer E-Visas or some form of electronic visa solution for travelers with more expected to follow this year.

E-visas allow the secure management of the visa application process to take place entirely in an online environment, increasing time and cost efficiencies for the end customer and the concerned government as a convenient solution for a pre-travel authorisation.

“As improving technology continues to facilitate other newer applications in the travel and tourism industry, the potential for benefit to global traveler is extensive,” Vyas notes.

Some of the reasons why eVisa services are being preferred by the modern-day travelers include applying on the go with the globally accessible and user-friendly websites,simplified payment options(mostly online) and quicker turnaround time of decision making.

There is also no paper form filling or carrying copies of documents to be submitted on arrival while time is saved from visits to consulates or Embassy in person.

Travelers can also track application status online and reduced waiting time at airports for select categories.

Our Source: https://www.the-star.co.ke/business/kenya/2020-02-14-e-visa-emerging-top-choice-for-global-travelers/

Travel agents are here to stay! This is a statement that was made by the Chairman and Founder FCM Travel Solutions Mr. Charles Gikundi.

Mr Gikundi emphasised that only 20 percent of passengers buy their tickets directly or book travel through online travel agents. He was speaking during their 30^th anniversary celebrations of service.

“The travel industry is becoming digital and these makes people question how travel agents will survive when everybody is buying tickets online. Far from it, the principle has not changed. Only 20 per cent of passengers buy directly or online. The rest buy from travel agents. Travel agents are here to stay,” he stated.

KATA Chief Executive Officer Ms. Agnes Mucuha lauded the travel agency for their milestone.

She reiterated that passengers prefer to book travel with accredited travel agents who are trustworthy.

“KATA travel agents ensure that a passenger enjoys hustle free trips where the entire itinerary is organised for the traveller,” she said.

This, she added, ensures that travellers enjoy stress free holidays as the agents focuses on making the trip enjoyable and relaxing.

“One does not have to worry about visas, hotel bookings or even airport transfers as the KATA accredited agents focus on all the nitty gritty, leaving the client to have a happy vacation.

KATA travel agents are efficient, trustworthy and professional and abide by a strict code of conduct therefore ensuring that travellers get value for their money.

Our Source: Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA)

Dear Team,

Please be informed that following Upload has been processed.
Details on Countries and filenames can be find below.

Should you have any question please do not hesitate to contact us www.iata.org/cs.

We are pleased to inform you that the new Card Acceptance Chart feature is already available in BSPlink.

This feature enables you to query and download the Card Acceptance setups for the Airlines you have ticketing authority with, as well as to validate the type of credit card accepted from the customer – thus avoiding Agency Debit Memos (ADMs) related to the credit cards not accepted by the Airline.

In the meantime, we are committed to working towards service excellence, one step at a time…

Our Source: International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Uganda has ramped up its tourism campaign by dedicating this year’s annual Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo to the continent, under the theme “Promoting intra-African Travel.”

The expo runs February 4 to 6 at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala.

Uganda Tourism Board chief executive officer Lilly Ajarova told the media in Kampala, that the expo seeks to penetrate further into the African market, while consolidating the already existing outlets.

“Africa is one of the fastest growing tourism markets just behind Asia and this market is what we are positioning ourselves to tap into,” Ms Ajarova said.

The UTB is hosting 57 tour operators and journalists drawn from Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, Botswana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; and from the emerging markets of Thailand, Philippines, Russia, and Malaysia—on a countrywide tour to sell “Destination Uganda”.

The UTB has identified Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria as its key regional and African tourist sources.

Kenya accounted for the biggest percentage of regional tourists to Uganda at 29 per cent of the total 1.5 million arrivals in 2018. Rwanda came second at 26 per cent while Tanzania was third at seven per cent. With an estimated market of over 433 million people, East African countries hope to land more visitors from the region.

According to Ms Ajarova, the branding of the region’s major destinations makes it easier for the bloc’s inbound tourist.

Kenya has branded itself as beach and safari country, Tanzania for adventure at Kilimanjaro and island tourism in Zanzibar; Rwanda is the hub of gorilla trekking, while Uganda offers a cocktail of attractions.

Regional tourism too, has been boosted by the revival of Uganda Airlines, Tanzania Airlines and the growth of RwandAir and expansion of regional routes by Kenya Airways through its subsidiary, Jambojet.

Tourism is Uganda’s highest foreign exchange earner raking in $1.6 billion in 2018.

Our Source: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Kampala-picks-African-travel-theme-for-2020/2560-5443426-12g79sx/index.html

South Africa’s ailing national airline on Thursday announced plans to close almost all its domestic services and some international flights, the latest bid to save cash after a spree of cancellations.

Flag carrier South African Airways (SAA) has failed to make a profit for more than a decade and gets by on government bailouts.

Debt-ridden and strapped for cash, it was placed under a state-approved rescue plan in December following a week-long strike that pushed it to the verge of collapse.

The business administrators have since cancelled more than one hundred flights in an attempt to streamline services and conserve funds.

In their latest announcement, they detailed plans to definitively shut down some of those routes. 

They said in a statement that they “have identified which routes will be retained to drive the restructured national carrier towards profitability”.

The cull targeted mainly domestic routes, with services to almost all South African destinations set to be cut on February 29.

Domestically, only the Cape Town-Johannesburg route will continue to be served on a “reduced basis”.

International flights will also be affected, including links to Abidjan, Hong Kong, Munich and Sao Paulo.

Customers will either be accommodated on other airlines or fully refunded.

Some travel agents have stopped providing cancellation insurance for SAA flights.

South Africa’s government has admitted it is still seeking a solution to finance the airline, which has a fleet of more than 50 planes and employs more than 5,000 workers.

A state-owned bank stepped in with a state-guaranteed loan of 3.5 billion rand ($2.4 million, 2.2 million euros) last month.

Despite the efforts, administrators warned that restructuring measures would also lead to job cuts.

“A reduction in the number of employees will unfortunately be necessary,” they said, pledging to “retain as many jobs as possible”. 

Meanwhile, SAA subsidiary SA Express appealed a judgement that placed the company under business rescue.

“It is clear that the court went over and above what it was required,” said the airline on Thursday in a statement.

Our Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/South-African-Airways-axes-more-domestic-international-routes/688340-5446966-tvj999z/index.html

Kenya and the United States on Thursday signed an important Amendment to the U.S.-Kenya Air Transport Agreement.

Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Manisha Singh and Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure James Macharia signed the deal in Washinton DC.

The Amendment adds seventh-freedom traffic rights for all-cargo operations to the bilateral Air Transport Agreement and will enter into force following an exchange of diplomatic notes.

“It has been applied on the basis of comity and reciprocity since it was negotiated on December 4, 2019,” read part of a statement from the U.S State Department.

According to US government spokesperson, the rights in the Amendment will facilitate the movement of goods throughout the world by providing air carriers greater flexibility to meet their cargo and express delivery customers’ needs more efficiently.

“Specifically, the Amendment allows U.S. all-cargo airlines to fly between Kenya and a third nation without needing to stop in the United States, an important right if operating a cargo hub,” the statement said.

Kenyan all-cargo carriers will have reciprocal rights to serve the United States.

“This Amendment further expands our strong economic and commercial partnership, while creating new opportunities for all-cargo airlines, exporters, and consumers,” the statement noted.

It added, “It will fully open the Kenyan air cargo services market to U.S. carriers, and represents one way in which the U.S. Government is delivering for U.S. all-cargo carriers and American workers”.

The Amendment between the United States and Kenya is also a step forward in liberalizing the international civil aviation sector in Africa – a region that has the potential to be one of the fastest-growing in the world.

In October 2018, Kenya Airways made history with its debut Nairobi-New York nonstop flight.

Covering a distance of more than 13,713km, and taking 15 hours 25 minutes on the outbound trip, the new flight was not only the first commercially scheduled non-stop service between Kenya and the US but also ranked as one of the longest flights in the world at seventh place.

The route is also KQ’s longest flight.

Onboard were 234 passengers – 30 in business class and 204 on economy class.

So far Kenya Airways has completed 594 flights to and from New York since the launch of inaugural flight on October 28 last year. 

Speaking during a one-year anniversary celebration in New York last year, KQ chairman Michael Joseph said at least 105,084 passengers had been flown on the route.

For 594 flights made in the year, KQ could have ferried a full 138,998 passengers on full capacity. This means the airline managed 75 per cent capacity since launch. 

“Currently as we speak all our business class is fully booked on a daily basis and the economy is currently between 65 and 85 per cent full daily,” Joseph said.

KQ which had aimed a daily flight on the route but this was cut a few weeks later to five days a week, citing low demand during the winter season.

It, however, resumed daily flight in June on the Summer holiday peak especially for American tourists visiting East Africa.

“Beginning June, Kenya Airways will increase its frequency to New York from five days a week to seven days a week. This is expected to open more opportunities for travelers to take advantage of this route during this high season,” KQ said in a statement.

The non-stop flight to the US was billed as a key in Kenya’s quest to boost the arrival of American tourists as well as deepen commercial activity between the two countries that have been trading partners since Kenya’s independence in 1963.

KQ had hoped to ride on high tourist numbers from the US  to increase its revenues by 10 per cent.

 According to Joseph, a codeshare with Delta, all their passengers can fly from Nairobi to all the destinations without changing flights but they are seeking to expand the same this year.

 KQ’s  Nairobi New York Route serves 34 Africa destinations with Nigeria leading at 16.3 per cent of connecting Africa traffic with 1753 passengers.

South Africa is second at 15 per cent with 1613 passengers followed by Uganda at 14.7 per cent with 1581 passengers.

Tanzania has 11 per cent of the connecting traffic with 1259 passengers while Congo has eight per cent traffic with 856 passengers.

Our Source: https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-02-06-us-kenya-add-all-cargo-rights-to-air-transport-agreement/