The government will stop Kenya Airways (KQ) bailouts from next year as it moves to cut off the national carrier from exchequer support. FILE PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG
Kenya Airways will introduce new flights between Accra (Ghana) and Dakar (Senegal) starting December 11 as demand for air travel picks up ahead of the Christmas festivities.
The carrier will deploy a Boeing 737-800 two times a week from Nairobi to Accra to Dakar and return to Nairobi via Accra.
The airline that is targeting corporate travellers, traders and leisure travellers between Ghana and Senegal with this flight will charge $499 (Sh61,027) on a return air ticket inclusive of taxes.
"The new connection will offer our guests more travel and connectivity options within West Africa,” Kenya Airways chief commercial officer Julius Thairu said yesterday.
The route connection, KQ says, will increase Dakar flight options from the current two weekly flights to four times weekly and Accra from daily flights to nine times a week with a night flight out of Nairobi to Accra.
The route is expected to offer customers within the KQ network more flight options and choices within West Africa and in and out of East Africa as well as provide seamless connections through Nairobi to the Middle East, India, China, Europe and USA.
The airline’s route expansion comes as the aviation sector is yet to fully recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that saw the airlines' bottom line shrink on restricted travel across the globe.
KQ, which has been surviving on State bailouts, reported an Sh9.8 billion net loss for the six months to June, narrowing it from an Sh11.48 billion net loss a year earlier.
The airline attributed the performance to a global spike in fuel prices. The company said it would have returned an operating profit of Sh1.5 billion in the half-year period had the fuel prices not risen sharply.
