KENYA – National carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has announced plans to resume flights to Rome, Italy’s Capital, after abandoning the route for close to a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline will do direct flights from Nairobi to Rome beginning June 6th, 2021 with two weekly flights on Wednesdays and Sundays.
The first flight out of Nairobi to Rome will depart on June 6 with return flights on Sunday.
“We are delighted to resume weekly flights to Rome and will continue to maintain an expanding schedule to various destinations across our network as countries ease travel restrictions” said Julius Thairu, Chief Customer Officer.
“Our code-share partnership with Alitalia, offers our customers excellent connections in Rome to rest of Italy, Europe, and USA and in Nairobi to the rest of Africa including Vanilla Islands, ” added Thairu.
The Rome flights has remained suspended since KQ cancelled all international flights on March 25th, 2020 following an outbreak of Covid-19.
During the first half of 2020, KQ operations were severely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis resulting in depressed half-year results.
The network activity from April to June was minimal due to travel restrictions and lockdowns effectively reducing operations to almost nil in connecting its home market to key cities.
“Our code-share partnership with Alitalia, offers our customers excellent connections in Rome to rest of Italy, Europe, and USA and in Nairobi to the rest of Africa including Vanilla Islands ”
Julius Thairu – Chief Customer Officer, KQ
Measures were put in place to preserve cash, including cost savings measures and reduced activity for employees.
KQ’s total revenue during the period reduced by 48% to US$275 million due to the reduction is due to the cessation of scheduled operations from the second quarter of 2020.
During the period, the airline operated a handful of charter flights and continued with cargo operations.
KQ recorded a 55.5% reduction in passenger numbers to hit a low of 1.1 million passengers during the period compared to 2.4 million passengers over the same period last year.
Passenger revenue declined by 53% and a decline of 37% in total operating costs, mainly driven by the reduced operations for the year. Of the total operating costs, direct operating costs declined by 48.8% whereas fixed costs declined by 12.6%.
Kenya Airways has since been working to resume passenger flights on its international network as it battles turbulence in resurging Cocid-19 infections in Europe.
The return of the Italian flights follows plans by KQ to also resume flights to France and Netherlands in March 2021 after their suspension in February.
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