As the effects of COVID-19 continue to ravage profits and suppress demand in the aviation sector, Kenya Airways fortune is likely to worsen following the suspension of flights to 8 African countries.
According to KQ, “The immediate outlook of the industry is not promising. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects that air travel will most likely take 2-3 years to recover to 2019 levels.”
The airline suspended routes to ; Nairobi – Bamako (Mali), Nairobi-Djibouti (Djibouti) , Nairobi – Mogadishu, (Somalia) Nairobi – Brazzaville, (Republic of Congo), Nairobi – Khartoum (Sudan), Nairobi – Blantyre(Malawi ),Nairobi – Djibouti( Djibouti) and Nairobi – Maputo( Mozambique).
“As with other airlines, Kenya Airways has been severely impacted. Our short and medium-term projections indicate that we must inevitably reduce our operations before we begin to scale up again,” reads a KQ statement.
The suspension is part of the company’s recovery strategy as it waits on demand to pick up. However, the decision will not affect any special charter flights on request.
Also, It is unknown if Kenya will resume flights to Tanzania. This is after Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) cancelled its flights to the country following exclusion of Tanzania from list of countries whose citizens can enter Kenya.
Kenya Airways resumed operations on 1st August after five months of suspending activities due to the pandemic.
