{"id":235657,"date":"2025-07-03T20:44:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T20:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235657\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T20:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T20:44:19","slug":"kenya-airways-launches-direct-flights-to-london-gatwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235657\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya Airways launches direct flights to London Gatwick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jimmy<\/a> By
\n
\n Jimmy Mbogoh
\n <\/a>
\n Published on: July 03, 2025 08:33 (EAT)<\/p>\n

File image of a Kenya Airways plane. PHOTO| COURTESY<\/p>\n

The national carrier, Kenya Airways, has landed its inaugural direct flight to Gatwick, London.<\/p>\n

The flight marks the beginning of yet another route for the
\nairline, as it seeks to turn a new leaf.<\/p>\n

According to senior management at Kenya Airways, they are
\noptimistic that the new route from Nairobi to London will break even in under a year. <\/p>\n

The route now increases Kenya Airways\u2019 frequency in London
\nto 10 weekly flights.<\/p>\n

Citizen TV’s\u00a0Jimmy Mbogoh was onboard the Thursday’s inaugural flight through the journey from Nairobi to London, which has been touted as a
\nstrategic addition.<\/p>\n

Imagine having dinner in Nairobi and breakfast in London.\u00a0One after the other, the passengers boarded the
\nBoeing 787-8, some oblivious of the significance of their journey \u2014 a journey
\nthat the airline says is expected to increase their passenger numbers by an
\nadditional 700 new seats.<\/p>\n

But just why didn\u2019t the national carrier opt for a
\ndestination so close to one of its most significant routes?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe London route contributes more than 10 per cent of our
\ntotal turnover or total revenue as a company, so it\u2019s quite significant. But
\nwhat is important is not just revenues \u2014 it\u2019s profitable revenue,\u201d said Julius
\nThairu, the Chief Commercial and Customer Officer.<\/p>\n

Kenya Airways CEO, Allan Kilavuka, on his part said, \u201cGatwick
\nwill facilitate a lot of trade volumes, including about a 40 per cent boost in
\nour belly capacity. So here we will be able to move goods more quickly between
\nNairobi and London, and also create a lot more opportunities for our exporters
\ninto the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides frequency to London, it is the additional value
\nproposition that has captured the attention of other stakeholders, with the
\nCabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport, Davis Chirchir, expressing optimism
\nover the route\u2019s potential to be scaled up to a daily flight from the current
\nthree weekly flights scheduled for Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of strategic positioning of Kenya Airways,
\nwhat\u2019s happening today is the kind of thing we\u2019d like to see \u2014 getting
\nattractive routes so that, as they seek to have one or two additional
\nequipment, they can build the kind of numbers you\u2019ve talked to them about,
\nbasically to have a bottom line and therefore make a profit,\u201d said Chirchir.<\/p>\n

Principal Secretary for Aviation & Aerospace Development
\nTerry Mbaika added, \u201cAviation contributes 3.1 per cent of our GDP, 46,000
\njobs. If we don\u2019t make it deliberate and open the space for our airlines, then
\nwe cannot get to the numbers we want to grow our GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n

At exactly 5:30 a.m., meaning the flight had been in the air for
\nabout five and a half hours, from the flight information, it was flying over the northern part of the continent, and in just under three hours, it would be arriving at the destination. <\/p>\n

But just what does it take to prepare
\nfor such a flight?<\/p>\n

\u201cPreparations start well before coming onboard. Beginning
\nwith our rest time, you have to make sure you have sufficient rest before you
\ntake your flight. Make sure you get to the airport on time to be well-prepared
\nfor the flight. We also rely on the department on the ground \u2014 they gather information
\nfor us. As well, we are in communication with our controllers and can request
\ninformation on runways in use and that kind of thing,\u201d said KQ Captain Cathleen
\nKang\u2019ethe. <\/p>\n

Another Captain Koki Mutungi added, \u201cWe have a minimum
\nnumber of crew we can take on particular flights. Fuel is determined by a lot
\nof things, i.e., weight, which is determined by how many passengers you are
\ncarrying, how much cargo you have, and how far you have to fly. What level are
\nyou flying at? It\u2019s a lot that goes into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just after hours in the air, it was time to finally land the
\nplane \u2014 a task that the captains performed with meticulous precision.<\/p>\n

After eight and a half hours of flying, covering a distance
\nof over 6,000 km, the flight landed in London Gatwick, delivering the very first 171
\npassengers on the flight \u2014 the first among many. <\/p>\n

As for Jimmy, it\u2019s time to go and hunt for that English
\nbreakfast, because as promised, you can have dinner in Nairobi and breakfast
\nin London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jimmy Mbogoh Published on: July 03, 2025 08:33 (EAT) File image of a Kenya Airways plane. PHOTO|…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,51420,393,4884,92088,92087,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-citizen-digital","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-kenya-airways","13":"tag-kq","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114791256166707324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}