Jambojet has set a December target for
launching international operations on 11 new routes after the budget
carrier acquired a new aircraft from a Moscow-based leasing company as
part of its expansion.
The low-cost airline, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways
, expects to receive regulatory approval to expand business beyond Kenya later this month, having fulfilled all conditions.
Jambojet
has applied to fly to Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Kilimanjaro in
Tanzania, Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi as well as to Uganda,
Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among
others.
To serve its domestic customers and the
upcoming routes, Jambojet has leased a 78-seater Bombardier Q400 from
Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), with a second aircraft scheduled for delivery
in November.
“I hope to get our air service licence
(ASL) later this month. The moment we receive the second aircraft we
will be ready to launch our regional routes,” said Willem Hondius,
Jambojet chief executive.
“We have fulfilled all that
is required of us and I do not know which routes we shall start off with
since this is subject to negotiations with our parent company Kenya
Airways.” Mr Hondius was speaking in Toronto, Canada, last Wednesday
when receiving the new aircraft at Bombardier’s factory.
The plane, which is valued at Sh3.2 billion, arrived in the country on Sunday and is scheduled to start operations on Wednesday.
Jambojet flies to six routes in Kenya; from Nairobi to Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu, Lamu, Malindi and Ukunda.
The
airline, which launched in 2014, has been in the market for new
aircraft to serve the busy coastal routes, which were in December hit by
flight delays and cancellations.
The firm leased a
Q400 from Abu Dhabi Aviation in January to replace one of the older
versions of the aircraft in its fleet and stabilise operations since
another plane was out on maintenance.
“I hope to have
between eight and 10 aircraft in the next five years. We shall keep to
one aircraft type to keep maintenance costs low,” said Mr Hondius. “With
the new planes our reliability will improve greatly. Whatever happened
in December should never happen again.”
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