Ethiopian Airlines will fly to Mombasa twice daily beginning
next month, further raising the stakes for national carrier Kenya
Airways
Kenya signed the open sky
agreement to improve connectivity across the continent and make it more
affordable, which has seen the national carrier face tougher competition
on its backbone African routes.
The Ethiopian operator was granted an additional frequency by the Kenyan government last month.
The
agreement between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed Ali means that the Ethiopian carrier will fly frequently on
the busy Addis Ababa-Mombasa route.
The additional flight will serve as a blow for Kenya Airways,
which dominates the international transfers between Nairobi and Mombasa.
Only
two regional airlines — Ethiopian Airlines and Rwand Air — currently
operate scheduled flights to Mombasa from Addis Ababa and Kigali
respectively.
Turkish Airlines is the only one from Europe operating scheduled flights between Istanbul and Mombasa.
Middle
East carrier Qatar Airways has indicated plans to fly directly from
Doha to Mombasa, piling pressure for KQ, as the national carrier is
commonly referred to by its international code.
Unlike these carriers, KQ drops passengers at its Nairobi hub before proceeding to Mombasa.
The
Transport ministry in July 2016 also granted low-cost carrier flydubai
the rights to begin daily flights between Dubai and Mombasa.
The agreement between Kenya and Addis Ababa is also expected to facilitate the expansion of KQ into the Ethiopian market.
Ethiopian
Airlines currently takes 80 per cent of its local market with the
remaining 20 per cent shared out to all other airlines operating in the
market.
As the local aviation market expands, KQ has called for reciprocal policies in other countries to also boost its business.
“If
we allow one airline to fly here four times a day, we should be allowed
to fly there four times a day,” said KQ chairman Michael Joseph in an
earlier media interview.
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