Kenya Airways cuts New York fights to once a week

A Kenya Airways plane at JKIA. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By GERALD ANDAE
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Summary

• KQ says the Covid-19 has affected demand for flying worldwide, hence the need to scale down on the number of flights operated on some routes.
• Kenya Airways chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka said the flights will, however, be upgraded once the demand for flying picks up.
• The airline was operating five flights to New York before the Covid-19 pandemic that saw the carrier ground all its aircraft in early April.

Kenya Airways will cut New York flights to one weekly when it resumes operations in that route on October 29.

KQ says the Covid-19 has affected demand for flying worldwide, hence the need to scale down on the number of flights operated on some routes.

Kenya Airways chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka said the flights will, however, be upgraded once the demand for flying picks up.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has affected travel demand worldwide. It will be a gradual resumption starting with one weekly service. As we are doing with all the other routes, we will monitor the trends and make the necessary adjustment to the frequency based on demand,” said Mr Kilavuka.

The airline was operating five flights to New York before the Covid-19 pandemic that saw the carrier ground all its aircraft in early April.

Kenya Airways had started direct flights to the US in October 2018, cutting the journey to 15 hours on the long haul route tapped as part of an effort to revive the airline’s fortunes.

Kenya Airways had forecast its daily direct flights to the US, which it launched for the first time in October 2018, would boost annual revenues by more than 10 percent in 2019 and 2020.

The long-haul route aimed to encourage more business and tourist travel, with the US being one of Kenya’s biggest source of visitors.

The carrier had delayed the flights to New York and China when it resumed international flights on August 1.

However, the China flights have already resumed, earlier than it had been projected after the carrier received authorisation from the Chinese authorities.

“We resumed our flights to China and this was earlier than we had expected. The reason for this was an approval that we had sought was received earlier than expected,” said Mr Kilavuka.

The carrier is currently operating one flight to Guangzhou, a city it has been flying previously.

“We will review the frequency based on passenger demand and adjust accordingly to cater for our customer requirements,” the CEO said.

Kenya Airways on January 31 suspended all flights to and from China amid a virus outbreak that had killed more than 200 people in Beijing and had spread to 18 countries at the time.

The virus had by yesterday infected more than 14.5 million people and killed more than 600,000 globally.