Twenty-four global hotel brands are considering opening new facilities in Kenya this year, as the industry recovers from the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, a new report shows.

The new hotels will bring to the market 3,155 new hotel rooms, according to the survey by hospitality advisory firm W Hospitality Group, making Kenya the top seven hotspot for new luxury hotels in the African continent.

About 2,450 rooms or over three-quarters of the planned hotel rooms were considered “onsite” meaning they are under construction.

The report says Egypt has the largest number of hotels under development in Africa, recording 85 hotels comprising over 21,000 rooms.

Global hotel chain Marriott International and Europe’s biggest hotel group Accor are some the global brands that will build the newest hotels in Kenya, according to the survey detailing upcoming investments in the hospitality sector.

This accounts for more than 25 percent of all new planned hotels in Africa in the first quarter of 2022.

Following Egypt in terms of total hotel development in the pipeline is Morocco with 7,209 rooms in development, spread across 50 new hotels.

Nigeria comes in third at 5,619 rooms in 33 hotels.

Ethiopia on the other hand has 5,206 rooms spread across 29 hotels while Cape Verde has 4,639 rooms in 17 hotels.

The next five places are taken by Algeria, 3,202 rooms, Kenya, 3,155 rooms, South Africa, 3,133 rooms Tunisia, 2,918 rooms and Senegal 2,693 rooms.

The expansion plans come at a time hotel chains are increasingly facing pressure from ultra-affluent clients who demand special services.

Marriott International announced in March this year it had signed an agreement with Baraka Lodges Limited to open its first luxury safari lodge in Maasai Mara, Narok County.

The JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya is expected to open in 2023 and will be Marriott’s first luxury safari property in Africa.

The US hotel brand in a statement announced that the new facility to be opened next year at the Maasai Mara National Reserve will mark its entry into the Africa safari segment.

The Mara lodge will be the fourth property by the multinational brand in Kenya and plans to employ up to 50 locals once complete.

In 2018, Sankara and Marriott Group signed a franchise agreement that saw the Westlands hotel trade under its independently operated premium brand, Autograph Collection.

Marriott International also operates two other hotels in Nairobi, including the 172-room Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport which opened in October 2017 and the 96-room Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Hurlingham, which was a conversion.

The global hospitality group also announced in 2019 plans to establish another facility under its affiliate Protea Hotel brand as part of its Sh31 billion investment by its partners in Nairobi.

Other leading luxury hotels in Kenya that have announced an expansion in the last few years include Carlson Rezidor and Acacia Premier among others.

Kenya’s tourism industry has started to pull out of its deep Covid-19-induced slump as local travellers take advantage of lower prices, but foreign visitor numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels.

Besides InterContinental Hotel, a number of top hotels, including Laico Regency and Radisson Blu in Nairobi’s Upper Hill, earlier stopped operations amid the coronavirus economic fallout. Radisson Blu has since reopened as the economy recovers.

Source: Business Daily

Tourists suffered severe hold-ups at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Bristol

Holidaymakers who battled lengthy queues and delays leaving the UK could encounter further problems on their return journey as hubs in Europe and the US struggle with their own travel disruption.

Tourists have faced severe hold-ups at UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham as they took advantage of relaxed Covid travel restrictions to enjoy a break at half-term.

Those who have been lucky enough to avoid the mass cancellations of flights by airlines such as easyJet and Tui could face problems getting back into the UK both by air and rail as other transport hubs in popular holiday spots reported disruption.

In Ireland, passengers at Dublin airport faced lengthy queues that stretched out of the terminal doors. Pauline Moore, who missed her Ryanair flight from Dublin to Stansted on Sunday morning, said in a Facebook post that the situation at the airport was “total bedlam”.

A press release from the airport acknowledged the problem it had coping with so many travellers and said it intended to implement a new plan to “improve queue management, maximise the availability of staffing resources, and increase the number of security lanes open at peak times”.

Dutch airline KLM last week largely suspended ticket sales for flights leaving from Amsterdam Schiphol airport – Europe’s third busiest – after queues stretched into the streets.

One easyJet customer told the Independent that the situation at the airport was “complete chaos” and that people were behaving “like animals”.

Schiphol’s chief executive officer, Dick Benschop, promised that the issues at the airport would “be gone by summer”.

The Paris Authority, which manages Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, also warned of major disruption. A tweet from its account said it was having software problems that were affecting border control checks and this would lead to delays.

In a statement on its Twitter account on Wednesday, Eurostar said it was experiencing problems for similar reasons: “Our stations are very busy today. Passport and security checks are taking longer than usual due to issues with French authority control systems.”

In Sweden, the CEO of airport operator Swedavia, Jonas Abrahamsson, has been summoned to parliament to answer questions about long queues at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. Travel blogger Rakhee said on Twitter that queues at Arlanda were “horrendous” and it took “a few hours” to get through security and passport control.

In the US more than 2,500 flights were cancelled over the four-day memorial day weekend. The industry struggled to cope with the increase in passengers, which led to delays at Los Angeles International Airport and Denver International Airport.

Airports and airlines were forced to significantly cut back staff after a succession of Covid lockdowns in Europe crippled the travel industry. But restrictions on travel have now mostly been dropped, and demand has surged as people try to get abroad.

However, despite a significant recruitment, drive airlines and airports have not managed to hire enough key workers, such as baggage handlers, to ensure that foreign travel runs seamlessly.

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Transport Association (IATA), earlier this week downplayed the prospect of travel chaos spreading to other airports. He said: “There are issues in some airports – it’s not across the world.”

Source: The Guardian

Considering a shortage of accommodation in Doha for the huge influx of football fans for this year-end’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the tourism industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expecting Dubai and other tourist destinations to be the choice of stay by fans who can then commute for matches.

The airfares to Dubai and Qatar have seen an unprecedented rise of 1900 percent. The reason is the football World Cup. It is scheduled to be held from November 21 and December 18 in Qatar this year. The tourism industry is set for a boom in Qatar and the UAE. Football fans from across the world want to be there during this period.

Considering a shortage of accommodation in Doha for the huge influx of football fans for this year-end’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the tourism industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expecting Dubai and other tourist destinations to be the choice of stay by fans who can then commute for matches.

Around 23.5 million enthusiastic football fans from around the world have applied for the tickets and though Qatar is going to add around 5000 more hotel rooms, there is still going to be a shortage, and countries in the GCC region, especially UAE, are expecting to fill the shortfall.

Authorities in UAE are confident that Dubai will be a place of choice to stay for World Cup visitors from other regions.

People associated with the tourism industry in UAE are expecting that travel from UAE to Qatar will be greatly accelerated during the event as football fans will fly to Doha from UAE to watch the matches, thus resulting in a substantial increase in prices.

Data from airlines show that one-way economy class airfare, which ranges from Dh360 (approx INR 7,604.74) to Dh 3,370 (INR 71,188.66approx) as of May 25, has already increased to Dh 7,110 (INR 150,194.30 approx) on November 20, a day before the start of the mega event.

Currently, UAE carriers Flydubai, Etihad, and Air Arabia and Qatar’s national carrier Qatar Airways operate flights between the two Gulf countries. Recently it was reported that Israel would also request Qatar to operate direct flights between the two countries during the FIFA World Cup.

Raheesh Babu, COO, Musafir.com, said that they are still waiting for more clarity from airlines. They are confident that people will be willing to stay outside of Qatar and visit the country for the matches only. Additionally, they are expecting airlines to significantly increase operations to accommodate the demand.

Although Doha has invested heavily in hotel accommodation and infrastructure for the world’s biggest sporting event, a shortfall remains, meaning many will stop for tournaments in neighbouring Gulf countries. Industry people in UAE are expecting Dubai to be their preferred choice.

Dubai-based realtors have said football fans are paying for short-term rentals in the Emirate. This could mean a bumper tourism season for the GCC, especially the UAE. In Dubai, estate agents are already seeing a surge in demand.

Around 23.5 million enthusiastic football fans from around the world have applied for the ticket sales draw. Most applications have been made by fans living in Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

Apart from eager applications for the final, the most prestigious matches include Argentina v Mexico, Argentina v Saudi Arabia, England v USA and Poland v Argentina. Ticket applicants will be notified of their fate by email from May 31, 2022, beginning with the scheduled payment period.

Meanwhile, FIFA has told police chiefs of competing countries around the world, at a conference in Doha, that the main security concern of the 2022 World Cup would be controlling hundreds of thousands of football fans in Qatar’s capital.

FIFA Safety Director Helmut Spahn told attendees that securing the most geographically compact World Cup is one of the tournament’s biggest challenges. The longest distance between any two of the eight stadiums is approximately 70 kilometres. Police representatives from competing countries will assess World Cup stadiums at the conference and evaluate transportation in Doha.

Source: The Statesman

Critical airport worker and capacity shortfalls in Africa that threaten to keep flights and passengers grounded and impede the continents’ economic recovery can be rapidly and affordably addressed with the adoption of trusted, secure cloud-based solutions, according to SITA, the air transport industry IT and communications systems provider.

Recent experiences in the UK, Australia and other parts of the world exposed airports inability to cope with the surge in demand for air travel as countries are opened up and begin to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind them.

“As the recovery of Africa’s air transport market currently lags many bigger markets by a year, there is a golden opportunity for cash-strapped airports, including smaller provincial and regional facilities, to take pre-emptive steps and future-proof their operations to ensure they do not become transport and economic choke-points as they ramp-up. They can achieve this by digitalising their various passenger processing systems,” said Hani El Assaad, SITA’s President for Africa and the Middle East.

“With so many skilled and experienced people having left the industry during the pandemic, the clock is ticking for airports to ensure they are ready and able to meet the ever-increasing volumes of travellers, their luggage and cargo shipments. The solution is for all airports – from mega-hubs to small municipal and regional facilities — to digitalise and automate time-costly processes like passenger processing and baggage handling. Agile cloud technology platforms that are efficient, flexible, and scalable to fluctuating passenger volumes can help alleviate the pressure. By empowering passengers to use their mobile phones as a remote control for travel, we can reduce bottlenecks and offer a more seamless passenger journey,” El Assaad added.

Until recently, tech-infrastructure costs and support requirements deterred many smaller African airports from investing in digital systems. However, capable and scalable cloud-based technology has become significantly more affordable. It is now also well within reach of smaller, regional airports that need to meet the combined needs to be integrated into the global air transport system and to be able to instantly switch-on additional capacity.

In Africa, so much economic activity depends on airports having sufficient capacity to facilitate efficient, reliable, secure, and safe air transport services. By transforming the passenger experience and meeting their customer airlines’ demands for better efficiencies, smaller airports will be promoting themselves and the communities, industries, and markets they serve as safe, convenient, competitive, agile, and user-friendly destinations.

Over the past decades, the air transport industry has encouraged governments, regulators, and airport and airline operators to embrace digital technology. The result has been the advent of things we now take for granted, such as customer self-service check-in and self-baggage drop solutions, smart-phone boarding passes and various mobile apps, and Digital Health declarations and Trusted Travel Passes for storing and verifying boarding passes and COVID vaccination status, and more. SITA’s print is all over such technologies, and the post-pandemic recovery is a golden opportunity to accelerate and expand digitalisation and take full advantage of the benefits and opportunities it unlocks.

Source: This Day

Nairobi — The tourism sector has received a major boost from the Indian market with a visit of about 300 tourists for an excursion of the country’s tourism products.

Last week, Kenya played host to 150 Indian travellers for a tour of attractions within Nairobi and Masai Mara while another group is expected to the jet in first week of next month.

The trip which is part of an incentive programme organized through Reliance Industries (RIL’s), an Indian multinational conglomerate company, is a shot in the arm to the sector that is picking up from the travel restrictions as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

The visit comes as part of efforts by Kenya’s Ministry of Tourism to boost MICE and B-leisure tourism, which is ideal for top executives and mid-level management visitors.

While receiving the first group of travellers at the Nairobi National Park, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) termed the visit as a strong endorsement of the country’s resilience to the impact of the pandemic as well as a first step toward restoring the confidence of Indian travellers in the destination.

“We are delighted to welcome the first batch of an incentive travel group from India. It shows that the destination is quickly re-opening and going back to normal travel business as it were and we are ready and prepared to receive visitors from all corners of the world,” said KTB acting director of Marketing Development Fiona Ngesa.

According to KTB, the growing demand and preference for personalized service, preference for sustainable and responsible travel and affinity for experiential travel are key emerging travel trends that Kenya has adopted to cater for the tourists’ needs.

India is a top five tourist source market to Kenya and whose performance is expected to rise courtesy of incentive programs and other promotional campaigns that KTB has lined up in the market.

On his part, Destination Management Company (DMC) Safari Trails CEO Rajay Thethi, said Kenya’s decision to remove PCR testing for arriving passengers into the country and the resumption of daily flights to India has been key in the increasing interest to travel into the country.

“India is one of the emerging markets we have been focusing on and we are very grateful to the Kenyan government for allowing the resumption of daily direct flights from India on Kenya Airways and also making sure that travel between Kenya and India is eased,” Rajay noted.

Ease of access to Kenya through the national carrier, Kenya Airways, that flies twice daily from Mumbai to Nairobi among other airlines have increased in the past, the flow of visitors into Kenya from the Asian market

Kenya had in 2021 imposed restrictions on travellers from India with the country being one of the worst-hit by the Covid-19 Delta Variant.

However, after the decline in number and the vaccination of citizens, both countries have lifted the restriction with visitors being allowed to travel freely.

Source: Capital FM

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, global leisure and business flights have risen to levels not seen since 2019.

That’s according to the Mastercard Economics Institute’s third annual travel report, titled “Travel 2022: Trends & Transitions,” published yesterday.

After analyzing 37 global markets, the report found that cross-border travel reached pre-pandemic levels as of March — a significant milestone for a travel industry that has been dominated by domestic travel since 2020.

The data shows a “major recovery” is underway, said David Mann, chief economist for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at the Mastercard Economics Institute. “It is just pure evidence of just how strong the pent-up demand has actually been.”

Flights are back

Global flight bookings for leisure travel soared 25% above pre-pandemic levels in April, according to the report. That was driven by the number of short-haul and medium-haul flights, which were higher in April than during the same time in 2019, according to the report.

Long-haul leisure flights weren’t far behind. After starting the year at -75% of pre-pandemic levels, an “unprecedented surge” in international flight bookings brought these flights “just shy” of 2019 levels in less than three months, according to the report.

Business flyers, who have trailed leisure passengers for the entire pandemic, are returning to the skies as well.

At the end of March, business flight bookings exceeded 2019 levels for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to the report, marking a key milestone for airlines that rely on corporate “frequent flyer” passengers.

The return of business travel has been swift, as business flight bookings were only about half of pre-pandemic levels earlier this year, according to the report.

A delay in Asia

The global upward trajectory comes despite a sluggish return to air travel in Asia. Flights to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia increased among Asia-Pacific flyers this year, though most of the top international travel destinations were outside of the region.

“Among the top destinations visited by Asia Pacific travelers in the first quarter of 2022, 50% were out of the region based on our data, with the United States being the number 1,” said Mann.

“Despite a delayed recovery compared to the West,” he said, “travelers in Asia Pacific have demonstrated a strong desire to return to travel where there have been liberalizations.”

If flight bookings continue at their current pace, an estimated 1.5 billion more global passengers will fly this year than in 2021, according to the Mastercard Economics Institute, with more than one-third of those coming from Europe.

Will this continue?

Strong demand for air travel and an upswing in global hiring trends are just some of the reasons the global travel industry has “more reason to be optimistic than pessimistic,” according to the report.  

People have paid off debt at “a record pace” over the past two years, while wealthier consumers — who are “likelier to be traveling for leisure” — have benefited from pandemic-related savings and increases in asset prices, according to the report.  

Yet, rising inflation, market instability, geopolitical problems in Europe and Asia, and rising Covid-19 rates are threatening to derail a robust travel recovery in 2022.

Incomes are expected to grow in response to inflation, but this will happen faster in developing economies, according to the report.

“While we expect income growth to outpace consumer price growth in Germany and the United States by mid-2023, this likely won’t happen until 2024 and 2025 in Mexico and South Africa, respectively,” the report stated.

Airfares are also up, with average ticket prices increasing about 18% from January to April of this year, according to the report.

Air travel cost increases varied considerably by region, with fares up 27% in Singapore from April 2019 to April 2022. However, the report said flight prices in the United States have remained roughly unchanged during the same time frame.

Yet for people yearning to travel again, higher prices aren’t an immediate concern, said Mann. Inflation and cost increases will only matter “after we’ve had some of that release of the pent-up demand pressure first.”

Consumers will eventually respond to travel price hikes, he said, “but that is more of a story, we would argue, by the end of the year, and for 2023.”

And that’s only if higher prices continue, he said.

Uncertainties surrounding Covid

A bigger problem may be the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, which continues to loom over the travel industry.

“Among the numerous risks that could derail travel recovery … we would put Covid as the biggest swing factor,” said Mann.

“Whilst treatments are better, and many markets have seen successful vaccine rollouts, a severe or contagious variant necessitating border closures could lead to a return of the non-linear, stop-start recovery patterns of the last two years,” he said.

A last summer hurrah?

Whether travel demand will remain robust throughout the year — or whether travelers will take a last summer hurrah before tightening their purse strings — is yet to be seen.

The report noted that people have traditionally spent less on travel following rises in energy and food costs.

“However, given massive levels of pent-up demand in a post-pandemic world, this time could be different,” stated the report.

Source: CNBC Travel

The continued focus on tourism in the Middle East has helped the region navigate its way through the unchartered landscape of Covid. Qatar is leading the way on recovery.

With flyers feeling more confident about long-haul travel, Americans are kick-starting travel revival in the world and the Middle East is no exception, noted market intelligence firm ForwardKeys.

A trend that had been highlighted in Skift’s U.S. Travel Tracker March 2022 report.

Even as UK continues to be the top source market for the Middle East contributing to almost 13 percent of arrivals, U.S. is now inching closer to lead this recovery with shares at a little above 11 percent.

U.S. arrivals register a 15 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels, according to data from ForwardKeys.

Based on the tickets issued for international arrivals to the Middle East in the second quarter of this year, Qatar is leading tourism recovery in the Middle East. The country is the only destination in the region to register a 7 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels.

Specifically for Qatar, arrivals from the U.S. have gone up by 105 percent while UK arrivals registered a 76 percent increase, compared to 2019.

Egypt, which ranked second in the recovery charts, registered a 27 percent decrease in on-the-book international arrivals compared to 2019, while United Arab Emirates (UAE), a close third, marked a 29 percent decrease.           

However, both Egypt and UAE have performed better against the Middle East and Africa’s total average, which is down by 33 percent compared to 2019, noted ForwardKeys.

This year’s average for the region is a marked improvement against last year, which was down 64 percent.

The Middle East is above the global travel recovery average, which is 45 percent below 2019.

Aviation Looks Up

The listing of airports in the Middle East throws another surprise as Dubai Airport trails behind Abu Dhabi to occupy fourth position.

Hurghada, the second busiest airport in Egypt after Cairo and a prominent leisure destination, was ranked as the most resilient airport showing a 17 percent increase in pre-pandemic levels.

Registering a 7 percent increase over 2019 arrivals, Doha airport maintained second position. This increase was aided by Doha maintaining most air services during the pandemic and Qatar Airways adding more routes from their Doha hub, said Shingai George, Africa market expert at ForwardKeys.

However, George warned that all of this could change in the blink of an eye if travel restrictions are eased as last-minute bookings continue to remain the norm. 

As comfort trumps cost, travellers today do not mind spending more to travel comfortably, spurring the demand for premium cabin classes, which Skift had identified as a megatrend for 2022.

As a result, premium cabin shares onboard flights in the region have increased by 4.3 percent since 2019. And while passengers travelling by premium cabin class are down by just 14 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels, economy class tickets are 37 percent below 2019 levels.

Source: Skift

Dubai – Are you planning to travel to the UAE anytime soon? If so, you may be wondering whether you need to take a PCR test and what any other COVID-19 requirements may be for entering the country.

With the UAE’s authorities updating entry procedures in the past few weeks, here is a round-up of all the requirements you need to be aware of:

Emirati, GCC citizens can enter using ID cards

On April 29, National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) announced that Emirati and GCC citizens are now allowed to enter the UAE using ID cards, without the need to show their passports.

Fully vaccinated passengers do not need a PCR test

From February 26, 2022, fully vaccinated passengers need to present a valid vaccination certificate(s) reflecting that the passenger is fully vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the WHO or the UAE and includes a QR code.

Unvaccinated passengers coming into the UAE

If you are a visitor or resident travelling to the UAE and are not fully vaccinated, you are required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate issued within 48 hours after the sample was collected and issued by an approved health service provider with a QR code.

According to the website of Emirates airlines, test certificates sent via SMS are not accepted and the PCR test result must have a readable QR code. It is important to note that for transit passengers, the rules and conditions for entry at the final destination will apply.

Unvaccinated passengers under the age of 16

Unvaccinated passengers arriving in the UAE who are under the age of 16 are exempt from presenting a negative PCR test result upon arrival.

However, NCEMA stressed on the need for these passengers to adhere to all preventive and precautionary measures in place in the country.

COVID-19 PCR test and vaccination exemptions

• Children below 12 years old.
• Passengers with moderate to severe disabilities:
– Moderate or severe disability includes neurological disorders and intellectual or developmental disabilities. For example: Acute spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Ataxia, Autism spectrum, Bell’s palsy, Brain tumours, Cerebral aneurysm, Cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, Epilepsy and seizures.
– All other passengers, including those who are visually impaired, hearing impaired or physically challenged must hold a negative COVID 19 RT PCR test certificate as per the requirements.

Source: Gulf News

African airlines have continued to post growth in passenger numbers as more countries open up their economy after years of Covid-19 restrictions that negatively impacted the aviation sector.

Data from both the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and African Airline Association (Afraa) indicates that the regional carriers’ performance improved by 70 percent in February and 69 percent in March respectively.

According to IATA, the revenue that the airlines earned in terms of Revenue Passenger Kilometre (RPK) was higher when compared with what they got in January, bringing hope to an industry that was hard hit by Covid-19 interruptions.

“African airlines had a 69.5 percent rise in February RPKs versus a year ago, a large improvement compared to the 20.5 percent year-over-year increase recorded in January 2022 and in the same month in 2021,” said IATA.

The agency says February 2022 capacity was up 34.7 percent and load factor climbed 12.9 percentage points to 63 percent.

“The recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of the world lift travel restrictions.

States that persist in attempting to lock out the disease, rather than managing it, as we do with other diseases, risk missing out on the enormous economic and societal benefits that a restoration of international connectivity will bring,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general.

Afraa said the Covid-19 infection rate has picked up again in Asia and parts of Europe. China is battling a renewed surge in infections, fueled by the Omicron BA.2 sub-variants and is facing its worst epidemic outbreak since 2020.

In Hong Kong, hospitals are on the verge of collapse, and Belgium and Germany continue to record new cases of infections. Worldwide, the number of cases has reached 476 million and 11.7 million in Africa.

“Despite the surge in new infections, countries are lifting travel restrictions – apart from China where some cities are under lockdown. The WHO has criticised the so-called “brutal” lifting of anti-Covid-19 restrictions in Europe,” said AFRAA.

The agency says five African airlines continued their international routes expansion drive and had surpassed the number of international routes operated at pre-Covid while 10 other carriers either re-opened suspended routes or launched new international routes.

As of February 2022, African airlines had reinstated approximately 79.9 percent of their pre-Covid international routes, according to AFRAA.

Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and EgyptAir are among airlines that opened new routes to African destinations in the reporting period.

Kenya Airways announced on Monday that it has resumed operations to Madagascar and it will operate direct flights 3 times weekly from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Ivato International Airport, Antananarivo following the easing of travel restrictions previously effected by Madagascar.

Source: Business Daily

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) board has named Mr Nicholas Bodo, a Ministry of Transport executive, as the acting Director-General after a court blocked the appointment of Emile Nguza Arao on abuse of office and financial misappropriation allegations.

Mr Bodo, currently the Director of Air Services at the Transport ministry takes over pending the hearing of a suit filed by a lobby, Sheria Mtaani, challenging the appointment of Mr Arao.

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia last month appointed Mr Arao for a period of three years.

He was supposed to take over from Mr Gilbert Kibe, who exits the State Corporation today after serving for two three-year terms.

“They have been forced to appoint Mr Bodo as the acting director-general of KCAA until the case is determined,’’ a top source familiar with the details told the Business Daily yesterday.

Mr Kibe will be leaving KCAA after serving a two-year term at the authority that is mandated with the management, regulation and operation of a safe, secure and efficient air transport system in Kenya.

Mr Arao formerly headed the East African Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (EAC-Cassoa).

He has been battling allegations of incompetence and misuse of finances at Cassoa after the East African Legislative Assembly, in an audit report, fingered him over poor management of finances and recommended he be personally held accountable.

The assembly accused Arao of presiding over questionable and excessive administrative and consultancy expenses, payments of staff education allowances, travel costs and issues of improper running of the body.

But the petitioners Sheria Mtaaani and Shadrack Wamboi moved to the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nakuru and obtained orders on March 17 blocking Mr Arao from taking up the job.

But Mr Rao has dismissed the petitioner’s prayers arguing that his case is based on unfounded allegations.

He says that if there was massive pilferage of massive funds, mismanagement, wastage, or theft, the audited financial statement and management letter would have led to a qualification of the accounts and this has not happened.

Source: Business Daily