A Kenya Airways plane on the runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
- Kenya Airways’ low-cost subsidiary, Jambojet, has received regulatory approval for commercial flights, bringing it closer to launching operations.
- The launch of the low-cost airline is in line with KQ’s strategy to gain dominance over African routes, a plan informed by dwindling revenues from traditional markets amid projections of a boom in the African aviation industry.
Competition in Kenya’s low-cost aviation market is set to increase with both Jetlink and Jambojet expected to take off in the first quarter of 2014.
Kenya Airways’ low-cost subsidiary, Jambojet, has received regulatory approval for commercial flights, bringing it closer to launching operations.
According to a notice from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) published in the Kenya Gazette on Friday, Jambojet now has a one-year air operator license to fly “international scheduled air services for passengers and freight” to several destinations in East Africa.
Jambojet was initially granted an air operator licence by the KCAA in September 2012, which expired before the carrier could commence flights.
During an investor briefing in September this year, KQ chief executive Titus Naikuni said that the exact date for Jambojet’s launch within the first quarter of 2014 would be announced pending KCAA approval. Mr Willem Hondius was named to head Jambojet.
Jetlink has also been granted a one-year licence for international scheduled and non-scheduled flights. The firm had grounded flights in 2012 following a cash crisis in its South Sudan business.
In an interview earlier this month, Jetlink told Sunday Nation that it would begin operations again within the first quarter of 2014.
The KCAA board held public hearings on the licence applications in early December.
The launch of the low-cost airline is in line with KQ’s strategy to gain dominance over African routes, a plan informed by dwindling revenues from traditional markets amid projections of a boom in the African aviation industry.
These prospects have drawn increased investments in Africa’s aviation sector from international players. Last year, British investors acquired Fly540 operations in the region and set up FastJet, a carrier modelled along the lines of Europe’s Easy Jet.
Jambojet will not be KQ’s first foray into the low-cost flying. In 2004, the carrier absorbed its Flamingo Airlines subsidiary into group operations.
Once operational, JamboJet will ply Juba, Hergeisa, Bujumbura, Kigali, Addis Ababa and Dzaoudzi internationally, and Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Wajir, Lamu and Malindi locally.
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