Jambojet has acquired a new aircraft from a Moscow-based leasing company as part of its expansion.
The budget carrier expects to receive regulatory approval to expand business beyond Kenya later this month, having fulfilled all conditions.
To serve its domestic customers and the upcoming routes, Jambojet has leased a 78-seater Bombardier Q400 from Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), with a second aircraft scheduled for delivery in November.
Jambojet has set a December target for launching international operations on 11 new routes after the budget carrier acquired a new aircraft from a Moscow-based leasing company as part of its expansion.
The low-cost airline, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ, expects to receive regulatory approval to expand business beyond Kenya later this month, having fulfilled all conditions.
Jambojet has applied to fly to Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi as well as to Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among others.
To serve its domestic customers and the upcoming routes, Jambojet has leased a 78-seater Bombardier Q400 from Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), with a second aircraft scheduled for delivery in November.
“I hope to get our air service licence (ASL) later this month. The moment we receive the second aircraft we will be ready to launch our regional routes,” said Willem Hondius, Jambojet chief executive.
“We have fulfilled all that is required of us and I do not know which routes we shall start off with since this is subject to negotiations with our parent company Kenya Airways.” Mr Hondius was speaking in Toronto, Canada, last Wednesday when receiving the new aircraft at Bombardier’s factory.
The plane, which is valued at Sh3.2 billion, arrived in the country on Sunday and is scheduled to start operations on Wednesday.
Jambojet flies to six routes in Kenya; from Nairobi to Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu, Lamu, Malindi and Ukunda.
The airline, which launched in 2014, has been in the market for new aircraft to serve the busy coastal routes, which were in December hit by flight delays and cancellations.
The firm leased a Q400 from Abu Dhabi Aviation in January to replace one of the older versions of the aircraft in its fleet and stabilise operations since another plane was out on maintenance.
“I hope to have between eight and 10 aircraft in the next five years. We shall keep to one aircraft type to keep maintenance costs low,” said Mr Hondius. “With the new planes our reliability will improve greatly. Whatever happened in December should never happen again.”
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