SAX returns to Juba route in expansion plan

East African Safari Air Express (SAX) is set to re-launch flights to Juba in an expansion plan that will also see the carrier start services to Entebbe, Uganda.

The airline, which is in the process of acquiring more aircraft, will launch the new flights in November.

SAX has made comeback on the Juba route after its withdrawal in October 2010 that came after an ownership change.

“The market is good and we want to cover all good airstrips in the country (Kenya) and Africa,” said George Kivindyo, a director of SAX.
The carrier intends to have daily flights to Juba.

The flights to Entebbe will benefit from the grounding of Ugandan Airlines, which stopped flying after the International Civil Aviation Organisation ruled that the Ugandan regulator did not have capacity to licence airlines.

“Somehow the Uganda government came through faster than Tanzania. We already have approval from the Kenyan government,” he said.

SAX, a beach and safari premium airline has embarked on a growth plan mainly focusing on adding new routes, leasing more planes and reinforcement of third-level routes.

“At the moment we fly a caravan and Beechcraft-19 on these routes. We are thinking of a bigger aircraft,” said Mr Kivindyo. SAX will in two months fly in three additional planes to ease its domestic and regional route traffic.

“We are bringing in MD-83that will be plying some of the new routes,” he added. The plane will cost $5.5- 6 million. It will also lease two Beechcraft-19 with a capacity of 19- 20 from Spain.

The company lease agreement will be facilitated by Avicon & Caribex Inc- an international craft management, operations and logistics.

Representative from the country companies are in the country for talks. SAX has also applied for traffic rights to France.  It also says that they will soon make the Comoros route more active by linking Dar es Salaam to Comoros, Mombasa then Dubai.

According to SAX the airline is experiencing increased passenger traffic from Comoros from travellers flying to shop for food stuff and merchandise.

SAX will also launch double flights to Mogadishu, one of its best performing routes in terms of passenger numbers.

“Our big routes now are in Mogadishu and we are going to be double daily flights to Mogadishu.  We are going to launch it the moment we get this plane,” said Mr Kivindyo.

The airline currently has seven aircraft- two caravans, one beechcraft-19, one Foca 28, three DC-9 and two ex-Mandela planes.

SAX is owned by 720 Investment Company.