KENYA – National carrier Kenya Airways has increased frequencies to Europe following high demand from passengers seeking air travel for summer holidays.
The carrier has increased weekly flights to Paris from three to four starting Saturday, July 17, 2021, London will get an additional flight from one to two starting July 27 while Amsterdam will get two frequencies beginning August 2, 2021.
The rise in demand is the product of increased travel to Kenya and other East Africa countries by western tourists seeking safari visits and a view of the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara National Reserve.
The airline popularly known as KQ says it has seen an increase in demand and that has prompted the carrier to ramp up the frequencies to cater for the high number of passengers.
“We have seen an increase in demand that has been occasioned by summer demand in Europe and that is why we are ramping up our frequencies on this route,” said Kenya Airways.
The airline said the demand could be short-term as once the summer is over the airline could be forced to revert back to the previous frequencies.
The demand for summer travel has also been aided by the easing of travel restrictions in Europe on the back of mass vaccination against Covid-19.
The additional flights on the European leg, come just a month after Kenya Airways increased flights to the US from one to three weekly as demand for summer travel surged.
The airline has been struggling with low numbers on the US route, a move that saw the carrier suspend the flights to one weekly after resuming operations in November 2020 following months of grounding, occasioned by the Covid-19 disruptions.
The US route is one of the crucial destinations for the national carrier as it plays a major role in connecting travelers who transit through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The national carrier normally makes the bulk of its revenue at the onset of summer that runs through June to September when demand for air travel is high.
A sharp decline in summer bookings last year saw Kenya Airways losses nearly triple to Sh36.2 billion (US$334.4 million) in the year ending December 2020 as the carrier sank deeper into the red following a slump in passenger numbers occasioned by Covid-19.
Locally in Kenya, the carrier has also introduced an extra early morning flight to Kisumu, leaving Nairobi at 6:15 am and return to the capital at 7:00 am.
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