the airline’s inaugural direct flights on Nairobi-Livingstone route at
Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport in Livingstone
KENYA Airways, which introduced a Nairobi to Livingstone route in 2013, has added a new destination to its network and will now fly to Cape Town South Africa.
And Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) Tourism Promotion Manager Jocelyn Mutinta said the extending of Nairobi-Livingstone route to Cape Town was a positive development to Zambia’s tourism.
According a press statement released yesterday, there will be three weekly flights between Nairobi and Cape Town beginning July 2016.
It will be Kenya Airways’ second city in South Africa after Johannesburg and will be linked to Livingstone in Zambia, the gateway to Victoria Falls.
The service will operate on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Kenya Airways flight will depart Nairobi at 7.20 am, arriving in Livingstone at 9.30 am, departing Livingstone 10.20am to arrive Cape Town at 1.25pm.
Return flight would take off from Cape Town International Airport at 2.15pm, arrive Livingstone at 5.10pm and depart Livingstone at 6pm and touchdown Nairobi 10pm.
The statement states that Kenya Airways would be the only carrier to offer a direct service between Livingstone and Capetown and the route would offer excellent connections to the Kenya Airways network.
The route will be operated by Embraer E190 with a configuration of 12 business class seats and 84 economy class seats.
Kenya Airways’ Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mbuvi Ngunze said his entity was excited to add a new destination to its network.
“We continue to connect Africa to the world and the world to Africa. Cape Town via Livingstone will offer our guests two holiday destination on one route,” he said.
In March this year, Kenya Airways announced several flight scheduling changes that are expected to boost connectivity for passengers in Africa by at least 20 per cent.
Kenya Airways will now operate more hours of the day following the opening of the runway last month, thereby ensuring efficient use of its aircraft and crew.
“Through this, there is room for an increase in flight frequencies to some cities in its network, especially in Africa. More flights during the day make for more options to connect between destinations.
“The rationale behind this to augment operations as the company seeks to return to profitability in the next two years.
“In the last two years we have improved fleet utilization by 30% by re-looking at our schedule and enhancing it to suit our customer needs,” the statement stated.
And ZTA Tourism Promotion Manager Jocelyn Mutinta said the extending of Nairobi-Livingstone route to Cape Town was a positive development to Zambia’s tourism.
“This is a positive development because we already have tourists who usually come here from Cape Town and so it will be easier for them to travel.
“Further, the move will connect two world heritage sites namely Livingstone’s Victoria Falls and Cape Town’s Table Mountain and ultimately enable tourists to visit the two places easily,” Ms Mutinta said.
I will only rejoice if it was Proflight or a Zambian airline. We Zambians are u-Se-less. We let other reap where we could have been reaping. All we know is to riot because someone else has the brains over us. GRZ should have first encouraged Proflight to take on this route than let Kenya Airways take it. You mean proflight did not do a research about this route.
Brilliant news for holiday planners and it’s probably going to be cheaper than SAA. I’m not an expert in this industry but Proflight should step up providing such services to Zambians and more affordable rates
Terrible airline; they do not keep time, keep missing connection flights, misplace bags, etc etc
I agree with you. If you fly Kenya airways be ready to buy new clothes in Lusaka because most likely your luggage will be missing. Very disorganised airline.
Celebrating splashing water but in event of fire at we have no water?
This is a very positive development for the Sub-region (COMESA and SADC). Indeed competitive/alternative travel to SAA monopoly is very welcome. As for Proflight, it is killing itself out of the market. Imagine a one way flight to “East London” (Eastern province) is ZMW2,000+ and compare this with FastJet to Dar at ZMW1050! Well done KQ and please soon open more direct flights from SMKIA and Nfuwe.
While Kenyans consolidate, Zambians argue and fight!
And ZTA Tourism Promotion Manager Jocelyn Mutinta said the extending of Nairobi-Livingstone route to Cape Town was a positive development to Zambia’s tourism. This is onother dark hour for Mother Zambia, where was Kenya Airways when local airlines where struggling to service travelers to Livingstone. Jocelyn Mutinta is adding more fuel to Xynophobia when our police are struggling without helicopters. This route should be left to locals. Kenya airways should just operate from Kenya / Lusaka only and leave local routes to local operators. Whats wrong with us Zambians? Simple logic is always difficult.
Comment:This is a great news for us in Nairobi to sample what Zambia and SA has to offer to our great continent. Long live Africa Airlines