Kenya Airways reschedules flights as runway reopens

Kenya Airways said Thursday it has made several flight scheduling changes starting from Sunday following the reopening of a runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

The airline's CEO Mbuvi Ngunze said in a statement the changes are expected to boost connectivity for passengers in Africa by at least 20 percent.

"The changes take into account the reopening of the Nairobi's JKIA runway which was undergoing an upgrade by the Kenya Airports Authority that saw it closed for six hours daily, from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. for a year," Ngunze said.

He said Kenya Airways which has been embroiled in a financial crisis will now operate more hours of the day, thereby ensuring efficient use of its aircraft and crew.

Through this, Ngunze said there will be room for an increase in flight frequencies to some cities in its network, especially in Africa.

"More flights during the day make for more options to connect between destinations," Ngunze said, noting that the rationale behind this hub redesign program is to augment operations as the company seeks to return to profitability in the next two years.

"In the last two years we have improved fleet utilization by 30 percent by re-looking at our schedule and enhancing it to suit our customer needs. Through this, the airline has the same number of seats, but with a much lower cost of the fleet," he added.

The Kenyan carrier has introduced an additional flight to South Africa, bringing the daily flights to Johannesburg to four and night flights to Antananarivo in Madagascar increasing frequency to twice a day.

Bangui, the capital city of Central African Republic will also see the number of flights increase to three times per week.

The recently introduced night flights to Kinshasa and Lagos and reopened flights to Freetown and Monrovia continue into the new schedule. Douala operations are back to normal after the runaway reopened in the capital of Cameroon.

"Africa is the main beneficiary of the changes, allowing for better connectivity into Europe and Asia. Intra Africa connectivity will also be enhanced by the new schedule," Ngunze said.

He said Kenya Airways will offer additional flights to Addis Ababa, making a total of three flights every day to the Ethiopian capital with morning departures from Nairobi to Addis set at 7:20 a.m. with a return flight in the evening at 8:00 p.m. from Addis to Nairobi.

"This will give greater flexibility for business travelers who have now an opportunity to travel for business within one day," Ngunze said.

Kenya Airways will also change its flight schedule on the Nairobi - London routes effective to ensure efficiency.

In the new schedule the flight will depart JKIA at 09h10 to arrive into London at 16h15. Then depart from London to Nairobi the same evening arriving in Nairobi the next morning. Currently the flight departs Nairobi in the evening arriving in London the next morning.

Ngunze said the airline will also introduce six extra weekend flights in its schedule for flights between Amsterdam and Nairobi from Aug. 5 until Aug. 21 as part of its summer schedule.

The additional flight will depart Nairobi in the evening to arrive in Amsterdam early morning the next day and depart from Amsterdam to Nairobi the same morning arriving late afternoon in Nairobi.

"These are expected to improve connectivity to and from the U.S. and Europe with an early morning arrival into and departure from Amsterdam to Nairobi," said Ngunze. Endit