Kenya Airways reduces flights to London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg and Kigali

Kenya Airways has reviewed flight schedules to several countries but says trips to London and Paris on specific days will be unaffected.

A statement issued on Wednesday said the airline will be making changes as the situation demands.

Nairobi-London flights that are scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday have been suspended from March 18 until April 16, 2020.

However, flights scheduled for Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from Nairobi to London remain operational.

For the Nairobi-Paris route, there will be no flights on Mondays and Wednesdays from March 25 to April 16, 2020.

Flights to Paris for the rest of the week will continue as normal.

KQ flights to Bangkok, Mogadishu and Khartoum have been suspended from March 19 to April 30, April 2 and March 30 respectively.

The national carrier has also suspended flights to Djibouti from March 17 to April 19.

Flights from Nairobi to Dubai have been reduced from two daily to one while Johannesburg will have two KQ trips per day.

Kenya Airways will also operate daily flights to Kigali but reduced from two to one.

“These changes are necessary to ensure optimal and efficient operations….we assure customers that we are fully compliant with IATA protocols and have instituted strict hygiene measures as guided by health authorities in Kenya, across our network and the World Health Organization,” Kenya Airways said in a statement.

Meanwhile, South African Airways (SAA) cancelled 162 international and regional flights until the end of this month due to low demand and restrictions linked to the coronavirus.

According to Reuters, SAA is under a form of bankruptcy protection and battling for its survival.

President Cyril Ramaphosa had on Sunday announced travel bans affecting several countries where SAA flies, including the United States, Britain and Germany. South Africa has 116 confirmed cases.

CNN further reported that the United Arab Emirates has temporarily banned all its citizens from traveling abroad during the coronavirus pandemic.

State news agency WAM said the decision has been made to “protect” nationals from the coronavirus spread and the cancellation of flights.

The UAE has 113 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins.

On Tuesday, British cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before, the health ministry said.

Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on January 31. There have so far been 56 reported deaths.

Russia’s coronavirus crisis center said the country will suspend most flights to and from Italy, Germany, France and Spain over the coronavirus outbreak, starting from Friday.

Russia will stop issuing tourist visas to Italian citizens to prevent a spread of the virus, the crisis center said in a statement.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia rose to 28 from 20 on Wednesday and all the people tested positive in the last day had previously traveled to Italy, according to the statement.

Additional report from CNN and Reuters