CONDOR ANNOUNCES MORE MOMBASA FLIGHTS FOR COMING WINTER SEASON
Condor, the German leisure airline owned by Thomas Cook, has used the just concluded ITB in Berlin to announce added flights from Germany and Austria to Mombasa, commencing on 24 and 25 December 2013 respectively.
Besides their ‘regular’ services the airline will operated a B767-300 from Munich on Tuesday, 24th December and the following day Wednesday from Vienna to Mombasa on a weekly basis until at least Easter 2014.
Once in the Lufthansa stable, before changes of ownership eventually took the airline to Thomas Cook as an inhouse leisure carrier, Condor is now Germany’s third largest airline with over 6 million passengers flown per annum.
Sources in Mombasa and along the Kenya coast expressed their delight when the news were broken to them, as the added two flights will go a long way to help fill beds and more likely also encourage other operators and airlines to take a fresh look at Kenya and resume operations, which had in the past been shelved since a range of anti travel advisories came into effect from around September 2011.
‘This is excellent news for the Kenya coast’ said a regular contributor from Mombasa before continuing ‘but we must not let the tour operators down. The new government needs to put infrastructure into place, the bypass to the South Coast, added water works and sewerage works and ensure stable electricity supply. There are a lot of things which need doing and the new devolved government in Kenya after the elections will see the coast have more say on what priorities in local projects they counties choose, though central government still is in charge of roads and bridges and the port. After our elections went peacefully we hope that we can get another bumper year of arrivals and revenues’.
Last year was marked by the non start of flights already announced for Mombasa by Qatar Airways and Brussels Airlines and the withdrawal of several charter flights from Europe, but at least Turkish Airlines stepped into the breach and is now besides Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines the third scheduled carrier to connect Mombasa with the world. Watch this space for regular and breaking aviation news from Eastern Africa.
