KENYA AIRWAYS SET TO ADD JEDDAH AND BEIRUT
‘The Pride of Africa’, while committed to connect Africa by 2013 like no other airline from their Nairobi hub, has not lost sight of other valuable destinations, where direct flights to and from Nairobi, and beyond for connecting passengers, will add value for passengers and a boost to the bottom line for the airline.
Earlier in the week did Kenya Airways let the cat out of the bag that Beirut / Lebanon and Jeddah / Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were next on their list of new exciting destinations, confirmed by none other than CEO Dr. Titus Naikuni during an Embraer conference for African airlines in Nairobi.
Across Africa are Lebanese businesses thriving, with close links to ‘back home’ and connections are often not easy, causing multiple stops enroute. When KQ will commence flights to Beirut though it will be easier for expatriate Lebanese to go home or else have families and friends come visit them in Africa, and though no confirmation was given at this stage if Beirut will be served nonstop from Nairobi, it would be a fast and user friendly connection even if an added stop would take place enroute.
Jeddah, the commercial capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was for long a KQ destination and is now being ‘brought back’, as a result of closer trade links and to open a route for vacation traffic to Kenya and East Africa but also right across the continent, where Kenya Airways offers a network second to none. Timings into Jeddah at present are the remaining issue to be solved as KQ would like to offer a departure out of Jeddah to arrive in Nairobi at a convenient time for network connections across the rest of the African continent but the airline is confident that a suitable ‘slot’ will eventually be found soon so that flights can begin before the end of 2011.
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