NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 23 – South African budget airline Airlink has been granted permission by the Kenya Aviation Authority (KAA) to launch direct flights between Kenya and South Africa.
The airline will connect Johannesburg and Nairobi starting next month.
The route will be served by an Embraer E190 with a passenger carrying capacity of 98.
“Yes, we are having plans to start flying to Nairobi from 24th April,” the Airline said.
It currently operates in twelve countries, such as Uganda and Tanzania, among others.
Its entry presents a tough challenge for Kenya Airways (KQ), which has been dominating the route for a while now.
Stiff competition between the two will benefit travelers with cheaper tickets in the long run.
A spot check by Capital Business on the KQ website shows that it charges Sh41,820 in economy class from Entebbe, Uganda, to Johannesburg, South Africa, while Airlink charges Sh28,645 on the same route.
“Airlink, Southern Africa’s premier airline, is spreading its wings with a new daily Johannesburg –Nairobi service, which will see it become the first private sector airline to offer flights on the route from April 24, 2023,” Airlink CEO and managing director Rodger Foster said on Thursday.
This comes barely a month after President William Ruto and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, agreed to remove the trade bottleneck between the two countries.
“Airlink is proud and excited about our commercial interline agreement with Kenya Airways and looking forward to strengthening our intra-Africa partnership,” read a tweet shared on their timeline.
Earlier, the company had downplayed its intentions to expand into the country.
“Currently, we have no plans to operate in Nairobi.”
