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Kenya Airways changes Nairobi-London flight schedules

KQ

A Kenya Airways plane at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE

National carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has changed its flight schedules for the Nairobi-London route.

The airline which currently departs for London in the evening, arriving at the Heathrow Airport the following morning will from next month be departing in the morning.

“The time change is really about efficiency and best utilisation of our assets. Our flight to London leaves Nairobi at 11:25 PM and arrives in Heathrow at 5am. The aircraft sits on ground for 14 hours and leaves at 7pm GMT to land in Nairobi at 6am.

“This means we have two aircraft doing the London route every day, each sitting idle for 14 hours in Heathrow. We are looking to ensure our aircraft are utilised more efficiently while giving our guests better connectivity across Africa with less waiting time to travel to Europe,” said Kenya Airways.

Turnaround strategy

As per the new schedule, which starts on March 1, the KQ flights will depart from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 9:10am to arrive in London at 4:15pm, then depart from London on the same evening arriving in Nairobi the next morning.

The airline is implementing a turnaround strategy after posting a Sh25.7 billion after tax loss for the year ended March 2015.

KQ announced mid last month that it would sell four aircraft to boost its cash position and cut on debt. The airline said it would sell four Boeing planes in November 2014.

The two planes which American airline Omni International is buying were delivered new from Boeing to Kenya Airways between 2004 and 2007 and were operated on its long haul scheduled routes especially to Asia and Europe.

The carrier also partnered with online portal bookings.com to sell accommodation through its own website in a bid to lure more customers.