Two charter flights to bring in French tourists every week

More French tourists will visit Kenya as a result of the local Tourists Board’s marketing campaign in its traditional European market, industry players have said.

An XL owned charter flight will land in Nairobi and Mombasa once every week from Charles De Gaulle airport, the Kenya Aerotech Ltd Station manager at Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Mureithi Riitho said.

“Although we have a weekly charter flight from France, receiving two every week  is a strong indication that the French are now keen to visit Kenya following political stability in the country, which the international community has been keen on,” Mr Mureithi said.

One of the charter flights, which landed last week, had a total of 266 passengers, 118 of whom disembarked in Nairobi and the rest in Mombasa which Mr Mureithi said was an impressive start for a charter making a maiden voyage.

The Airbus 330 has a capacity of 385 passengers.

Corsair has been making weekly flights to Mombasa and it was for the first time that the country was receiving two weekly charters from France.

The two charter are expected to operate until March this year when the high season is expected to end.

Mureithi said Mombasa airport was now receiving 20 charter planes every week from this month, which is an increase compared to 17 received last month.

Following the post election violence which rocked the country after the disputed election in 2007, all the European countries withdrew or diverted their charter planes to other destinations, save those from Germany.

Two more charter flights are expected before the end of this month, Mureithi said, adding that the number was expected to reach the figures of 2007 when around 30 charter flights landed in Mombasa every week.

Most of these flights have passengers destined for other countries such as Zanzibar, Tanzania and Madagscar, Mureithi said.

A Belgium chartered airline made its maiden voyage in the country last week from Brussels.

Stakeholders in the industry lauded this as a strong move towards opening a huge market in Belgium for Kenya tourism.

Kenya also receives direct flights from Paris, Amsterdam and Gatwick.

According to the Mombasa Airport manager, Mr Yatich Kangugo, a Turkey charter flight was also expected to make a maiden flight before the close of the year.

A Dutch charter plane started operating weekly flights to Mombasa two weeks ago and another one from Amsterdam was expected to resume weekly flights last week after it withdrew following the post-election violence in 2008.

Tourist officials said charter flights from Europe would soar to 30 a week towards the end of the year, compared with less than 20 per week in recent months.

“Charter flights from Europe are expected to shoot up to 30 per week by the end of the year, compared with over 20 currently. By the look of things, we are gearing towards fully recovery between next year and 2011,” Coast Tourist Association chairman John Cleave was recently quoted.

Tourism earnings

Recent figures released by Tourism Minister Najib Balala showed that between January and September this year, tourism earnings rose by 10 per cent to $488.5 million (Sh36.64 billion), compared with $426.2 million (SH33.24 billion) realised in the same period last year.

Consolidated arrivals between January and September this year stood at 687,664, compared with 496,056 in the same period in 2008.

Tourist arrivals last year stood at 725,000, compared with 1.8 million in 2007.

According to the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers Coast branch chairman Titus Kangangi, hotels in the region have registered impressive tourist bookings.

Last year, most of the hotels registered bed occupancy of less than 30 percent largely from conferencing and local tourists.

The setting in of the winter season, coupled with the Christmas and New Year festivities is expected to boost guest in Mombasa hotels.