For the third day consecutively, thousands of Jambo Jet passengers
Thursday continued to experience delays and cancellation of their
flights to various holiday destinations in the Coast region. PHOTO |
FILE
For the third
day consecutively, thousands of Jambo Jet passengers Thursday continued
to experience delays and cancellation of their flights to various
holiday destinations in the Coast region.
Players in
the tourism industry slammed the flight management for the mess that saw
thousands of domestic and international holidaymakers stranded at
various airports.
Kenya Coast Tourism Association
(KCTA) chairman Mohammed Hersi said the situation had seriously affected
the high expectation of hoteliers during this festive season.
He
wondered why the domestic airline, owned by Kenya Airways, had resorted
to overbook passengers beyond its capacity, hence inconveniencing their
visit and stay in various hotels.
"I hope you know how
much damage you are doing to domestic tourism that we fought so hard to
build over the last 10 years… We have 30,000 plus beds to fill, we have
100,000 Kenyans who earn both directly and indirectly from tourism at
the Kenya Coast,” he said.
Kenyans, foreigners affected
Mr
Hersi said many Kenyans and foreigners who had also planned to fly out
of the country for their holidays were also affected by the delays and
cancellations of flights.
“I am sorry that is totally
unacceptable, if it was a one-off we understand, these things do happen,
but it is now becoming more of the rule than an exception,” added Mr
Hersi.
The situation has affected tourism businesses
in the South Coast tourist resort areas of Diani and Ukunda and Mombasa,
Malindi and Lamu in North Coast.
Mr Hersi expressed
his dismay over JamboJet's booking of passengers heading to Ukunda on a
bigger aircraft that could not land at Ukunda airstrip and thus
diverting the plane to Moi International Airport, Mombasa.
“Why
would you sell more tickets than you can handle then you take a bigger
aircraft that cannot land in Ukunda. Passengers heading to Ukunda chose a
direct flight to avoid the pain at the ferry and you go ahead to
subject them to the same pain again without any qualms,” stated the KCTA
chairman.
He
added: “Why don't you just sell what you can handle instead of giving a
false promise of landing in Ukunda or Malindi only to land in Mombasa?
In business that is deception and it creates a terrible negative vibe
besides some passengers may opt to sue you. Please we want you to focus
on flying rather than fighting cases.”
Maulid festival
He
said he witnessed the plight of many stranded passengers at Malindi
Airport among them hundreds of Muslims from around the world who were
flying to attend this year’s Lamu Maulid festival.
“Malindi/Watamu
which was already in deep trouble is facing more trouble since willing
guests cannot find their way to these beautiful resorts. I was in
Malindi two days ago and I saw it for myself, cancellation because would
be guests could not fly in,” added Mr Hersi.
For two days, this reporter was unable to get comment from JamboJet management through email inquiries and phone calls.
Two
months ago, JamboJet announced additional flights to all destinations
within the country including Lamu ahead of the festive season.
Jambojet
Chief Executive Officer, Willem Hondius then said: “We are cognisant of
the increased demand for flights during the festive season as people go
on holiday or travel back home.
"We want to ensure
that we provide our customers with value for money, greater choice as
well as flexibility with the additional frequencies.”
He
announced an increment of flights to Mombasa from 22 weekly to 31, 20
flights per week to Kisumu, Eldoret and Ukunda and 16 weekly flights to
Malindi from 13
No comments :
Post a Comment