Stakes raised as SouthEast Air enters Mombasa route

Kenya: Competition for a share of the lucrative Nairobi-Mombasa route has moved a notch higher. This follows the entry of SouthEast Airlines, a subsidiary of African Express Airways into this route. Its inaugural flight from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Moi International Airport in Mombasa departs Nairobi at 7.00 am today, an official at the airline confirmed.

This is a one-way flight that will cost Sh3,780 ($43) while a daily schedule commences on August 29, 2014 at an all-inclusive ticket price of Sh4,950 ($ 56).

SouthEast joins other airlines plying the Nairobi-Mombasa route which includes Kenya Airways, JamboJet - a subsidiary of KQ and Fly 540. Other airlines, including Jetlink have already pulled out. and are yet to resume operations on the Nairobi-Mombasa route. Efforts to get a comment from the SouthEast Airlines Managing Director Mtalaki Mwamburi went fruitless with his office confirming that he was out.

The entry of a new player into the Nairobi-Mombasa route is coming at a time when passenger numbers on this flight path has dropped significantly. “This route is suffering from a drop in tourists’ numbers, the main driver sustaining airline operations between Nairobi and Mombasa. Although locals are trying to utilise the route, their numbers are smaller,” said Nixon Ooko, the operations director at Fly 540.

At the moment, Fly 540 has left its ticket prices to be market-driven with a range of between Sh10,540 and Sh17,000 for a return ticket between Nairobi and Mombasa. It charges one-way fares between Nairobi to Mombasa at Sh4,150 ($53) and Sh7,350 inclusive of taxes, 20kgs baggage allowance, seat selection and free refreshment.

Fly540 flies from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Juba, Lodwar, Eldoret, Kisumu, Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa and Zanzibar with daily one-way flights. The low-cost carrier was established in 2005 by Don Smith (CEO) and Nixon Ooko (Operations Director). It  took to the skies in November 2006 with the first flights between Nairobi and Mombasa using a 48-seat ATR 42-320 turbo-prop aircraft. The network now has more domestic routes and extra airplanes.