Cargo costs rise looms on Wajir landing order

What you need to know:

Freight carriers from Mogadishu to Nairobi to make stopovers in Wajir before landing at JKIA in the Kenyan capital.
The order annuls direct flights between Mogadishu and Nairobi.
Astral Aviation CEO Sanjeev Gadhia said the company will incur up to Sh1 million in operation costs for every flight diverted to Wajir.

Freight carriers on the Nairobi-Mogadishu route say operating costs will rise sharply after a directive effective last Thursday that they make stopovers in Wajir before landing at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The operators, previously exempted from the stopover, now have to make a security stop following the notice by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to all passenger and cargo airlines. The order annuls direct flights between Mogadishu and Nairobi.

Astral Aviation chief executive officer Sanjeev Gadhia said the company will incur up to Sh1 million in operation costs for every flight diverted to Wajir.

“The new directive will result in significantly higher costs that will result in considerable losses for every Kenyan airline flying to and from Somalia,” said Mr Gadhia.

Air freight cost had dropped by at least 15 percent between Mogadishu and Nairobi in 2018 following the resumption of direct flights in 2017.

Operators said they lowered the charges of hauling cargo so as to pass the benefit of direct flights to shippers.

Fly empty

Astral Aviation had, for instance, slashed the cost per kilo from $2.20 (Sh223.8) to $1.95 (Sh161.75).

The freighters are more concerned by the fact that most of them fly empty from Mogadishu after delivering cargo.

“We do not fly cargo in the country on our way back and the diversion of our flights does not make any economic sense to us given that we come back empty,” said an airline operator who requested anonymity.

Mr Gadhia said they have appealed to the authorities to allow designated carriers to operate directly from Mogadishu to JKIA as they have put in place stringent security measures on this route.

“While being respectful to the security directive, for an airline, which flies empty from Mogadishu to Nairobi, it will be very difficult to absorb the high cost of diversion,” he said.

Nairobi has long argued that the security stopover in Wajir acts as a buffer against security threats posed by Al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia.