Kenya Airways has announced that plane tickets will likely hike in case flights resume operations after Covid-19 forced the national carrier to ground its flights for the first time in 40 years.
According to KQ CEO Allan Kilavuka, air ticket prices will go up as the airline seeks to recover from the negative effects that Covid-19 has caused to its business.
As most airlines are coming up with policies and strategies in their plans to resume operations, the KQ Chief says air travel will completely change after Covid-19.
Airlines will adopt new rules like social distancing, wearing masks and other protective gear. Social distancing would most likely lead to increased prices as airlines will seek to cover costs for the unoccupied seats.
Mr. Kilavuka argues that a good number of travelers are tourists who travel for leisure but the first priority will be given to business passengers which means the revenue will still be low when operations resume.
“Travel is not going to be cheap. 55-65% of people travel for leisure. Therefore we are going to lose 51-76% of our market between now and December as business travelers are the ones that are going to travel first,” Kilavuka said.
The KQ CEO was speaking at a meeting that was attended by officials from the Tourism ministry. The meeting was held to outline strategies that would be put in place when normal operations resume.
Present at the meeting was Tourism PS Sophia Kwekwe who said the government will focus on domestic tourism in efforts to boost the hospitality sector after Coronavirus is contained.
“Domestic Tourism is going to be the way forward. Road and train travel is going to pick first. We are therefore working on opening up the regions that have not been as popular as parks and the Coast. We also looking into pursuing bilateral tourism,” Kwekwe said. More Articles From This Author
