Tourism ministry says KQ move to cut US direct flights ill-advised

Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma and then US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec at JKIA during KQ’s inaugural direct flight to New York. [File, Standard]

The Tourism ministry has criticised Kenya Airways’ (KQ) decision to cut down the number of direct flights on the recently launched New York route.

Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said the route has much potential and requires the airline to put in a lot of work, over time, to get enough numbers to make it profitable. KQ started flying to the JFK Airport in October last year amid much hype and fanfare championed by the Government, particularly the tourism and transport ministries.

Initially, the airline flew to the US hub daily, but scaled this down to three flights per week about a month later.

It argued, at the time, that the move was not unique to the route and it was custom in the industry to reorganise routes with a view of optimising resources as well as ensuring a balance between costs and revenue.

But addressing Parliament’s Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism last Thursday, Balala termed the action by KQ unfortunate in what was seen as the first major cracks between the ministry and the carrier on the new route.

He also criticised the airline’s ticket pricing, saying it needs to be more competitive compared with other carriers.

“Direct flights are important, but then direct flights alone, without making it affordable and be promoted and marketed will not have any impact,” he said.

Flights between Nairobi and New York reduced to 15 hours from the previous over 22 hours of flying and long layovers, mostly in Europe and the Middle East.

At the same time, Balala said the ministry was in talks with online hospitality platform Airbnb to formalise local facilities that use the platform to book guests.