Tanzania’s low cost airline fastjet Plc (AIM:FJET), has been recently cleared by the Kenyan government to start operating flights to and from Kenya under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement between both countries.
Fastjet’s first flight to Kenya is set to departure on January 11th, 2016, from either Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro to Nairobi that will be operated on a daily basis using an Airbus A319 aircraft with the capacity to transport up to 156 passengers.
The kick-start of flights to and from Kenya follows the award of an Air Service License (ASL) by the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) in October, 2015, that extended the airline’s international destinations to six after South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Fastjet Tanzania has been working hardly to launch all these routes but the clearance awarded by the Kenyan government, offers a unique potential due to the current constraints to passengers traffic on the Dar es Salaam-Nairobi route as high air fares, explained fastjet CEO Ed Winter.
It has excluded a large part of the local people since a long and difficult journey by road is often the most taken option within a combined population of over 8 million people between both cities, Mr. Winter added.
This is why fastjet is thankful with the transportation ministries and the civil aviation authorities from Kenya and Tanzania, since now the people will have access to affordable air trips while the airline achieves its growing mission, stressed fastjet General Manager for East Africa Jimmy Kibati.
One-way tickets on the route Nairobi-Dar es Salaam start from KES 8,177 or USD 80 while on the route Nairobi-Kilimanjaro start from KES 5,110 or USD 50.
Currently, only Kenya Airways and Precision Air offer direct flights on the routes Dar es Salaam-Nairobi and Kilimanjaro-Nairobi with fares going from USD 420 to USD 760 and from USD 310 to USD 448 according to Skyscanner Limited, a UK-based travel search site.
