Kenya Airways Mulls Suspending Flights to London and France

Kenya Airways (KQ) is considering suspending flights to London (England) and France in the wake of the second lockdown in the two countries.

Authorities in the two nations were forced to impose fresh lockdown following the emergence of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The restrictions has resulted in a sharp decline in passenger demand on the two routes, which are among the most for Kenya Airways in the European market.

“Following the announcement of the lockdown measures in England and France, we are assessing any possible impact to our flight schedule. If your flight will be affected, we will contact you to advise on the alternative,” KQ said in a statement.

This week UK Prime Minister Borris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron announced two-week and month-long lockdown respectively citing a spike in the number of Covid-19 infections.

KQ resumed international flights on August 1st following a seven-month hiatus occasioned by the outbreak of Covid-19 in Kenya and other parts of the world. 

Last week, the national carrier canceled the planned resumption of direct flights to and from the United States.

The flights were scheduled to resume on Saturday, October 31st but this was pushed to November 29th due to what KQ termed as increased flight cancellations by passengers traveling to New York.

“We regret to announce that due to increased cancellations of flight bookings to New York City, we have pushed back the resumption of our service to this destination to 29th November,” the statement read in part.

“We greatly appreciate the interest and support of our customers who had booked with us and have made alternative arrangements for their travel. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.”

KQ had announced it would initially operate two weekly flights on Wednesdays and Sundays on the Nairobi-New York route before increasing the frequency to three times a week (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday).

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