Fly540 will on December 1 restart direct flights to Kisumu from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, increasing competition on a route served by carriers such as Safarilink, Jambojet and Kenya Airways.
The airline will fly once every day, down from the two daily flights it operated before the coronavirus outbreak that forced it to ground its operations on the route last year.
Passengers traveling to Kisumu from Nairobi will pay an introductory fare of Sh3,450 for a one way ticket depending on the date of travel.
The airline stopped passenger operations on the route last March due to Covid-19 travel restrictions imposed by the government to stop spread of the disease.
Fly540 chief executive Don Smith told the Business Daily in an interview Tuesday that the carrier that also plies other domestic routes such as Malindi and Lamu will deploy a Dash 8 Q 300 on the route.
Most passengers using the Nairobi-Kisumu route are either on business trip, attending conferences, on tourism trips or visiting to their rural homes.
“We seem to link the flight with other international destinations such as Entebbe,” said Mr Smith.
Besides restarting flights on the lucrative Nairobi-Kisumu route, the airline has a few months ago announced plans to start flights to Ukunda from its hub in Nairobi.
The airline said then that passenger on the route will pay an average fare of Sh10,540 on a one-way ticket, which is cheaper compared to its competitors on the route.
The other airlines that operates on this routes are, Jambojet, Kenya Airways, 748 Air Services, Renegade Air and Safarilink.