Kenya Airways is set to resume its international passenger flights from Saturday following the easing of restrictions on movement as directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta, reported The Standard.
The first international flights will be to Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Dubai, Kigali, London, and Lusaka.
“Since resuming domestic flights on 15 July 2020, we have been monitoring the adherence to the protocols that we have in place to ensure the health and safety of our customers and staff, and I am pleased that they are being enforced and followed strictly,” said Kenya Airways Group Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka.
Kenya has reportedly excluded the United States and other major European nations from a list of countries whose nationals will be allowed to enter the country when international flight resumes. A protocol guiding the resumption of international flights only has Canada, Switzerland, Japan, China, and South Korea outside of Africa in the list of 11 countries whose citizens will initially be allowed into Kenya.
China, which accounted for most of the tourists to Kenya, is the only country among the top 10 nations that has made it to the list that also includes Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Uganda and, Rwanda, Morocco and Namibia.
Kenya Airlines hopes to experience a gradual increase in the network with flights to Paris, Mumbai, and Amsterdam this month.
In Africa, the airline will operate flights to several cities including Accra, Freetown, Harare, Kilimanjaro, Lagos, Monrovia and Zanzibar. It said resumption of services to other destinations will depend on demand and other factors. It, however, plans to start flights to the US, China and Thailand from October 2020 as these routes requires the bulk of the network to open up so as to sustain adequate traffic.
Mr. Kilavuka said the resumption of international flights was an important milestone for the airline.
