MAJOR AIRLINES SIGNAL THEIR RETURN TO #KENYA WHILE #UGANDA IS THREATENED WITH RELEGATION TO TOURISM’S LOWER ECHELONS
(Posted 26th July 2020)
The announcement of the opening of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi – and of Moi International Airport in Mombasa – for scheduled passenger flights has brought instant results as both British Airways and KLM, two major international airlines, have announced their return to Kenya on the 01st of August and 03rd of August respectively.
British Airways will initially offer four flights a week, arriving in Nairobi on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and returning on the same day back to the UK.
KLM too will offer an initial four flights a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Air France will follow suit on the 06th of August, initially with one flight a week between Paris and Nairobi.
It is also understood that Qatar Airways and other carriers who used to fly to Nairobi prior to the pandemic lockdown, have expressed their intention to resume flights to the Kenyan capital, some with reduced frequencies to start with.
Kenya’s tourism sector is understandably excited about the prospect of having tourists return to the country, to take in the annual migration, visit other national parks and spend time at the beaches of the Kenya coast.
While Rwanda too is opening her international airport in Kigali, with RwandAir immediately relaunching operations to countries which are equally open for scheduled passenger air traffic does Uganda, almost stubbornly, remain closed, leaving the tourism sector reeling with losses and the almost sad recognition that the sector obviously does not matter the way they thought it would and should.
Rwanda has already announced reduced rates to visit the prized mountain gorillas and other primates to attract tourists back into the country, taking advantage of Uganda’s continuing hibernation, as does Kenya where the Masai Mara and the annual migration of the wildebeest ranks top of the list for visitors to explore while going on safari.
Uganda presently has record high levels of the river Nile inside Murchison Falls National Park and the falls itself are swollen with massive amounts of water, an almost surreal spectacle to behold, if only tourists could come to actually see it.
