KQ launches flights to Rome, Geneva

Kenya Airways on Wednesday increased its route offering by launching flights to Rome, Italy, and Geneva, Switzerland – the airline’s 4th and 5th European destinations after Amsterdam, London and Paris.

The move is part of Kenya Airways’ network expansion strategy steered towards growing its market share, increasing revenues and financial turnaround.

Kenya Airways MD and CEO Sebastian Mikosz said: “These new routes will play an important role in facilitating more business and tourism opportunities and strengthening Nairobi as the top business hub. With 5 European destinations and 55 worldwide from Nairobi, KQ offers Africa the best connectivity to the rest of the world and vice versa.”

“Nairobi is in many ways the ‘think tank city’ of the African continent with many NGOs and universities. Kenyan human rights NGOs will need just a few hours to be in Geneva and participate in sessions of the Human Rights Council. The same is true when it comes to humanitarian issues, trade, health and peace promotion. Geneva is the headquarters of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Trade Organisation, and the World Health Organisation. All these are organisations with active links to Kenyan institutions. Therefore, I expect more conference tourism in Geneva and in Nairobi. I expect new partnerships and collaboration. I expect more trade and investment. I expect a bright bilateral future. I expect a wonderful flight to Geneva,” Dr Ralf Heckner, Swiss Ambassador to Kenya said.

The Geneva flights will be connected to Nairobi as circular flights with Rome, Italy, which is one of Kenya’s top source markets for corporate and leisure travellers. Over 65,000 tourists from Italy visited Kenya in 2018.

As part of the strategy to capture these travellers and boost Kenya’s tourism industry, KQ this week commenced direct fights between Nairobi and Malindi, the primary destination for most Italian tourists and also home to a large proportion of the Italian community in Kenya. KQ has also finalised a codeshare deal with Alitalia, the Italian SkyTeam’s partner, to enhance connectivity on this route and offer more options to passengers in Italy and from Africa.

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“The growth of the airline’s revenues is pegged on the expansion of its network which is only possible with additional capacity. KQ will this year see the return of its 9th B787-8 from Oman Air, as scheduled, to support the network expansion into Rome and Geneva,” said Mikosz.

The airline will operate the new routes four times weekly using its flagship aircraft Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.