KQ Offers to Fly Back US Citizens in Kenya to New York Amid Covid-19 Outbreak
By John WanjohiPublished · 1,035 reads
Kenya Airways has offered to fly back American citizens and US lawful permanent residents wishing to leave the country in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
This was announced on Wednesday by the United States Embassy in Nairobi through its official Twitter and Facebook pages.
The Embassy indicated that the 234-passenger flight will depart the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi at 9 pm on Wednesday.
However, the plane, which has 30 business class seats and 204 economy class seats, will only fly to JFK International Airport in New York if it is fully booked.
An economy class ticket on this flight goes for $3,350 while a business class ticket costs $4,000, the embassy said.
“This will be a direct flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York,” the Embassy noted.
“We understand from the Kenyan government that there are no plans for flights after midnight tonight. If you wish to depart Kenya, this will be your last opportunity for an indefinite period of time.”
Those looking to travel on this flight have been asked to contact KQ using the following numbers; +254 741 131 526, +254 203 274 747, +254 711 024 647, +254 741 984 764). Bookings for this flight will end at 3 pm, six hours to departure time.
Kenya suspended all international flights effective Wednesday midnight as part of the measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. A total of 25 cases have been confirmed in the country.
Comments (8)
KQ is Crazy.
The cost by KQ is overly exaggerated. Too much per person! A family of 4 will part with nearly $16,000.00. You talk about exploiting travelers! Jeeeee!
Thanks KQ. KQ is just helping this Americans visiting families or touring. Know KQ is not American owned ,they have to incur the costs of cleaning the plane after use and coming back wtout passengers
@wanini - what business calculations model are you using to support the exorbitant pricing by KQ?
At 234 capacity, the fares will total nearly $900,000.00. Take out $100,000.00 for round trip fuel cost on the high end, $80,000.00 for two pilots, 8 staff cost of $80,000.00 and $50,000.00 plane cleaning fees. $90,000.00 extra for unforeseen expenses by the passenger/staff/pilots services - very generous calculations at best!
The balance is roughly $500,000.00 profit. The charged price can be reasonably cut by 1/3.
The cost is okay since the fight is optional. Given that the flight could return to Nairobi empty, what is being charged is appropriate.
The amount of money in those fares is enough to sustain one in Kenya for weeks, or even months, and still have enough left to pay for a ticket, when prices come back to normal. It would be more logical to use it to wait out the pandemic in Kenya, instead of using it to buy a ticket to the highly infected New York.
@nomad - a very good reasoning and idea! But, is anyone gonna listen? NY is just too hot to handle right now.
I think they should bunker down some place up-country until things cool off; just me seeing things your way.
This is a bit of price gouging since since round trip from the DMV area biz class can be had for around 3300 and if you wait till December you can get down to under $2800. On the other hand beggars can't be choosers.