Aviation firm 748 Air Services will on Thursday start direct flight to Kisumu stepping up competition for passengers on the route that is also served by carriers such Kenya Airways, Safilink, Fly 540 and Jambojet.
The company, that is currently on an aggressive expansion plan, said the new flight will originate from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi two times per day.
Passenger on the route will pay an average fare of Sh10, 700 on a return air ticket – which is relatively lower compared to its competitors on the route.
Safarilink, that has been operating on the Nairobi-Kisumu route since 2018 will charge Sh10,998 on a return air ticket on the route on Thursday.
“We are set to launch a new route to Kisumu starting May 20,2021,” the airline’s managing director Moses Mwangi told the Business Daily in an interview yesterday.
“Kisumu is very important in our expansion plan and 748 Air will provide customers with great value option when we officially open the route.”
The carrier will deploy a Dash8-Q400 type of aircraft on the route. The flight types can carry up to 80 passengers on a single trip.
The flight will leave JKIA in Nairobi at 7:30 am to arrive at Kisumu International Airport at 8:25am. There will be another flight leaving Nairobi at 4:30pm to arrive in Kisumu at 5:25pm.
The flight originating from Kisumu will leave at 9:25am to arrive in Nairobi at 10:25am. There will also be another flight leaving Kisumu at 6:25pm to arrive in Nairobi at 7:20pm.
“The new route will play an important role in facilitating more business and tourism opportunities as well as strengthen the lake region as the top business hub,” said the airline’s chairman Ahmed Jibril.
The airline is launching operations on the Kisumu-Nairobi route barely a few days after it resumed daily flights from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport to the Maasai Mara. The airline said that a return ticket to the Maasai Mara is currently going at only $206 (Sh22,000).The announcement come after President Uhuru Kenyatta lifted a ban on movement in and out of the capital Nairobi and other four counties deemed COVID-19 hotspots amid declining infections.