Kenya Airways US direct flights set for Oct 28

Travelers heading to the United States of America will from October 28, be able to fly direct from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport using Kenya Airways.

Kenya Airways has opened ticket sales on its website after ditching earlier plans to use a code share deal with partners on Sky Team to operate the Nairobi, New York route.

Those booking early will be able to get tickets for as low as $815 (Ksh.84,000) with returns return tickets set to retail from Ksh.106,000.

This marks a major milestone for the airline and the country that has been seeking direct market access to the US for over a decade.

The flight is scheduled to take 15 hours, a departure from the previous flight time of 22 hours including lengthy layovers passengers from JKIA had to cope with using connecting flights.

Speaking while making the announcement in Thursday, Kenya Airways chief executive officer Sebastian Mikosz said the airline will be targeting business and leisure travelers.

Kenya Airways will operate two Boeing 787 Dreamliners on the route with daily flights.

The national carrier has over the past one year reorganised its routes in a bid to free up capacity to fly direct to the US.

“We canceled our flights to Hong Kong and Hanoi in order to have capacity to use the aircrafts to fly to New York,” Mr Mikosz said.

Kenya Airways will be using its vast African connecting routes to pull passengers to fly direct to the US.

The Dreamliners have capacity to carry 234 total passengers, 30 in premier world and 204 in economy class.

More to follow…

Additional reporting by Patrick Igunza