Kenya Airways Ponders Maun, F/Town Routes

FREDERICK KEBADIRETSE
Staff Writer | Monday June 10, 2013 00:00

 

Addressing the media at the launch of two additional flights between Nairobi and Gaborone on Thursday, the airline's country manager Juliet Zintambila said as plans for further expansion of their footprints in Botswana, direct flights to Francistown and Maun were already on the radar.Buoyed by their success on the Gaborone-Nairobi route, she said they hope the other routes would become equally successful.

Meanwhile, the airline has added two new flights on its fleet servicing the Nairobi- Gaborone route.The new night flights will operate on Tuesday and Thursday. The Tuesday flight leaves Gaborone just after midnight at 00:50hrs and arrives in Nairobi at 06:00hrs. The Thursday night flight leaves Nairobi at 20:30hrs and arrives in Gaborone at 23:30hrs. Zintambila said the expansion comes as the airline aims to meet the rising demand for travel between the two cities.Kenya Airways now operates five flights a week from the initial two.There will be two night flights and three flights during the day.

Zintambila said the expansion would allow Kenya Airways' customers to take advantage of the airline's growing route network via its hub at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. She added that Kenya Airways is cognisant of the fact that transport is an important factor in the development of a country as it allows for movement of goods and passenger services as well as opening up new markets.'Our newest destinations are Livingstone in Zambia, Blantyre in Malawi and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates,' she said.

She said the current expansion into Botswana is in line with their core purpose of contributing to sustainable development, not only in Kenya, but also to the rest of the African continent.The new E190 jets will be operated on the new routes to Gaborone. With the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA) in Gaborone still undergoing expansion, Zintambila said they would have loved to operate bigger aircraft, but this is not possible due to limited infrastructure.

She said ever since they started flying to Botswana, there has been a steady increase in the number of customers. She said their target at the moment is to handle between 3,000 to 5,000 passengers a week.Asked on how their business has been able to thrive in Botswana despite other airlines struggling, she said their success comes mainly from their worldwide network support system.

'We are helping link Botswana with the rest of the world with our wide network in Europe, the Far East and even America. Botswana has over a long time relied on neighbouring South Africa to link to the rest of the world, but now have Kenya Airways as an alternative,' she said.Zintambila said competition in the business is currently healthy and hopes it 'will keep on improving'.