Nairobi News

Kenya Airways (KQ) is set to resume Nairobi-New York direct flights from October 29, the airline has announced.

KQ said it will initially operate two weekly flights (Wednesday and Sunday) on the Nairobi-New York route before increasing the frequency to three times a week (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday).

“We look forward to hosting you onboard our flights to your favorite destinations when you are ready to travel,” KQ said in a statement.

The direct flights to the US was inaugurated in October 2018, cutting the journey to 15 hours.

As of October last year, KQ had completed 594 flights to and from New York, flying at least 105,084 passengers.

The airline had deployed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet with a capacity of 234 seats for daily flight to New York.

The national carrier suspended all its operations in March after the government closed the country’s airspace in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in Kenya and other parts of the world.

NONSTOP FLIGHT

After Kenya reopened its airspace for international flights on August 1, 2020t, KQ reduced its routes by half to 27, dropping nonstop flights to and from the US due to low demand.

The US is among countries from which travelers are free to travel without being subjected to 14-day mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Kenya.

Data released by the Tourism Ministry last month showed that out of the 14,049 international arrivals in Kenya since the resumption of international flights on August 1st, the US had the highest number with 2,768.

The number of visitors arriving from the US is expected to spike once Kenya Airways resumes direct flights to New York in October.

The country has a strict protocol for air travel operations to help contain the spread of the virus and ensure that the sector is opened up taking cognizance of the measures put in place by the Ministry of Health.

Passengers departing from Kenya will be required to check and ascertain the protocols that they are expected to fulfill in their destination countries.