Going – Going – Gone come Tuesday …

KENYA AVIATION REGULATORS IN FIRING LINE AS JAMBOJET PREPARES FOR LAMU PULLOUT

(Posted 07th January 2016)

Aviation pundits are divided in their opinion over Jambojet’s announcement and reasons given earlier in the week that the airline will pull out of the Lamu route effective next Tuesday. Initial mention of this move was already made weeks ago and reported here the same day, when the airline’s management complained about being forced to operate with half loads into the Lamu aerodrome due to insufficient runway length.

While, as seen by this correspondent in November last year during a stopover at Lamu, the runway has been extended by the Kenya Airport Authority, the owners and operators of the aerodrome, it appears that the extension has yet to be cleared by Kenya’s aviation regulators.

This has triggered a game of ping pong as to who is to blame for the situation, with a source close to the Kenya Airports Authority blaming the regulators for not clearing the added runway length while the airline, according to the latest information received, blames all and sundry for their predicament of having to fly half empty planes to Lamu.

‘If you go back to when you reported that Jambojet will start flying to Lamu and Ukunda, you will see what questions were raised already then. Lamu at one time looked a very promising business destination when the LAPSSET project was looming large. We now know that the pace was lost and who knows when and how the project of the port, the pipeline and the railway will progress. You in Uganda seem to have doubts also now where your own oil export pipeline should terminate, if in Lamu or going by other reports, in Tanga? That situation has seriously impacted on traffic by people who were supposed to work on these construction projects. Leisure traffic into Lamu has also for long suffered over security concerns and international travel warnings have not been lifted. The curfew did a lot of damage to tourism arrivals as we both know. Maybe, just maybe Jambojet was a wee bit over optimistic about traffic numbers. Of course, if you prebook your fares can be much cheaper then when you fly from Wilson Airport with Safarilink or Air Kenya. But business traffic is short term booking traffic. That means for many the lowest fare may not be available and the higher fare is not much different then. Passengers find it anyway more convenient to fly from Wilson because of shorter access from the city, shorter check in times and less hassle compared to Jomo Kenyatta. If Jambojet really pull out of Lamu next week, the Wilson based airlines will take up the slack with no problem at all’ wrote a regular aviation source from Nairobi.

Similar arguments have also been used by Jambojet to explain why they reduced their double daily flights to the Ukunda aerodrome where KAA is presently constructing a school as part of their plans to expand the runway there. The extension cannot progress in Ukunda until the school has been relocated, a process thought to continue well into 2017. Again is Ukunda being served out of Wilson Airport by both Safarilink and Air Kenya both of which operate without weight restrictions using Dash 8 aircraft while Jambojet uses the larger Bombardier Q400NextGen.