Hard times for Kenya Airways as Dar es Salaam cuts frequencies

Kenya Airways (KQ) has reduced frequencies to Dar es Salaam from 42 to 14 per week. It now flies to Tanzania’s port city of twice daily from March 19, 2015.

This comes after the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) wrote to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), reducing flight frequencies of Kenyan carriers into Tanzania.

The move to lock out KQ from the Dar es Salaam route could worsen matters for  the national carrier, which has also had interrupted business in West Africa due to the Ebola outbreak.

Aviation pact

KQ operated five daily flights to Dar es Salaam and one to Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar respectively. “Noting that Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) is negotiated between governments, we are aware that the relevant State agencies have reached out to their Tanzanian counterparts in a bid to resolve the issue,” said KQ in a statement.

In a letter dated March 4, 2015, TCAA says discussions with Kenyan authorities concerning place of business and other regulatory requirements, failed to yield consensus. These discussions have been ongoing for the past eight years since 2007.

The Tanzanian authorities have also reduced to three, the exit and entry points in Tanzania-which are Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. In the half-year results ended September 31, 2014, KQ made a loss of Sh10.4 billion, down from a profit of Sh384 million over a similar period in 2013.

The airline has been operating in a harsh business environment, occasioned by a fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and insecurity, leading to reduced travel into Kenya and hub avoidance.

African routes

This has been aggravated by the Ebola pandemic, which led to the suspension of KQ flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia in August last year.

During the period under consideration, KQ’s capacity with African routes grew by 11 per cent mainly from increased wide body operations on key feeder routes to Kinshasa, Lagos, Lusaka, Lilongwe, Harare and Johannesburg. Further growth was spurred by increased frequencies to the East African catchment areas such as Entebbe, Dar-es-Salaam, Kigali and Bujumbura.

Political instability kept Cairo out of the network during the period under review, while capacity into South Sudan reduced by 11 per cent. In response to the Ebola pandemic in parts of West Africa, KO suspended operations into Monrovia, Liberia and Freetown in Sierra Leone, resulting in a capacity reduction of 20 per cent compared to prior year.

The decision by Tanzania Civil Aviation to cut KQ flight frequencies is also likely to affect the operations of Fly 540, a low-cost carrier that operates flights into Zanzibar.

The airline says transport is a critical pillar in the integration of the East African Community.