Kenya Airways Cuts US Direct Flights Due to Low Demand
Kenya Airways (KQ) has reduced the number of direct flights to the US to once a week, citing low demand.
The airline has been operating two weekly flights since November last year when it resumed flights between the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi and JFK Airport in New York after a seven-month hiatus occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
KQ CEO Allan Kilavuka said the national carrier was forced to cut one weekly flight after demand on the route dropped due to COVID-19 fears and restrictions.
New rules require all travelers aged above two years to present a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel or proof of recovery from the virus to enter the US.
“As Kenya Airways, we have responded to this by reducing capacity deployment in some key markets such as the UK and the US. We have reduced our operations to JFK from the planned twice weekly to once weekly, and we continue to monitor the situation,” said Kilavuka.
Before COVID-19 broke out in Kenya and other parts of the world early last year, KQ was flying to New York from Nairobi five times per week.
KQ launched nonstop flights to the US in October 2018, cutting the journey to 15 hours, with the airline completing 594 trips to and from New York and flying at least 105,084 passengers as of October, 2019.
Comments (18)
It would have worked better if the flight was to Atlanta ga or dfw texas.
My own personal perspective. Have heard this from fellow Kenyans and other travellers: Will never get on this KQ flight until security is fixed. Why should I risk getting on a potential missile flying into NY??
I also choose not to fly all American airlines in general based on their attitudes and penny pinching.
You don't think so too, that's fine. We are all entitled to our own choices. Good luck to KQ & JKIA but with compe from Kigali and Addis, they better style up quick.
From my personal experience, the flight is up to standard. I have used it once and highly recommend it. Buy Kenya Jenga Kenya
Let's blame everything on COVID 19..even mismanagement, CORRUPTION, INSECURITY, LOOTING ETC.
@Pigavitu do you live in the US and do you mean you don't fly American Airlines or do you not fly any US based carrier? If so do you drive everywhere in the continental US? Those distances are way too vast if you live out west. If you live out west, Alaska and Southwest are decent. Jetblue is also not bad. Stay away from AA, and treat Spirit and Frontier like crappy matatus with crappy service(fixed seats no legroom for the vertically blessed)
I only meant internationally. Based on my experience on American carriers in general. Am sure not all are that bad but I will never know because I choose not to fly them.
Banana airlines
Why wouldn't they have started the once a week trip first and watch the consumer behavior first? Ama ni pesa ya haraka kama kawaida ya serikali...
KQ should rather stop this careless flying. Covid no joke the new variants are even more deadly than the 1st Coronavirus. No one knows what the future holds many businesses have shut down permanently maybe newer variants will emerge. Let KQ diversify sell the planes go to other better sectors like drive in theaters with no Covid restrictions.
Diaspora media, stop being selfish. Just because you live in Texas doesn't mean KQ should fly there. JFK is ideal, and not because I'm an east coaster, no. NYC is the financial capital of the free world. Texas is the capital of KKK and moribund oil industry.
@Ex diasporan, it is simple business. Texas and the Southeast have the highest concentration of Kenyans, and Africans in general, who form the bulk of passengers flying directly to and from Nairobi. It would have made more Economic sense for KQ to fly passengers directly to Hartsfield-Jackson in Georgia, or DFW in Texas, than to New York. Personally I don't have the patience to make the connecting flight, just to fly KQ, considering that there is no time difference, and KQ is more expensive than most airlines, including neighborhoring Ethiopian. The New York route should concentrate on cargo, such as horticultural produce, not passengers.
Don't forget that KQ has a full fledged office at JFK, catering for one flight a week. KQ should borrow ideas from KLM, close the US office and let your partner, Delta manage the JFK to NBO bookings.
Or they should just close the one in New York, and open one in Atlanta or Dallas.
Was hoping to use KQ early this coming summer, but Delta/KLM had better rates with quick connection. Never can find a good connection to JFK from the mid-west..so KQ does not get my business.
I've flown the JFK-NBO-JFK route five times now without any hitches. It's always a brand new silent 787 Dreamliner so you actually get some sleep. The food is always great, plenty of tusker is served and red wines if that's your preference and the flight crew are always friendly. As for price, it was always the cheapest on Cheapoair. Try the flight before judging it.
Whatever haters say, I'll be flying JFK route soon. Passengers always book flights depending on what one likes including prejudices. As for missile potential, hey death is everywhere :from Covid-19, to mass shootings
After Texan Elon Musk is done with killing the oil industry, Texas will be like Detroit after 2008 financial crisis. And New York will still be the financial capital of the free world
Electric cars are crap in adverse conditions like a snow storm or power grid goes down like in texas right now.
At least with a combustion engine car you can use an inverter to turn it into a generator.