Moi international airport opens to more international carriers

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An Ethiopian airlines flight at the Moi International airport Mombasa ,More international flights are set to start flying to the airport PHOTO COURTESY

Mombasa,KENYA:The Moi international airport has opened up to more international carriers in the course of 2018.

This has in turn seen tourist arrivals at the airport grow by 48% for the past 8 months.

This is according to Tourism Principal Secretary, Joe Okudo who spoke in Mombasa when receiving visitors from TUI Belgium charter which brought 150 tourists in a week. He divulged that the charter incentive program has heightened the number of chartered flights into Mombasa.

The arrivals are said to increase from 57,588 to 84,286 since January to August. He assured that the weekly flight will increase more tourists of which it is their aim hence promoting market internationally.

“We are keen on attracting more visitors from the market with ease of access through the connection to Kenya from Brussels via Netherlands (via Schipol), SWISS (Zurich) and Germany (via Frankfurt),” Okudo stated.

The deal with the European carrier was struck during the just concluded Skal congress.

The weekly flight will be landing every Friday evening with tourists from the Belgian capital and other destinations.

Previously tourists at the airport had to rely on a connecting flight with the National carrier Kenya Airways from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport , Ethiopian airlines which operates a daily 5.30 pm flight from the airport to Bole international airport in Addis Ababa and Rwandese carrier Rwandair which flies twice weekly to Kigali.

That is if the seasonal charter flights from German luxury airline Condor, Turkish airline which flies from Mount Kilimanjaro and Italian carrier Neos which flies from Milan are not in operation.

However, more international flights are set to be received at the airport.

Polish carrier, Lot Polish airlines is set to kick off a weekly flight from the Polish capital Warsaw with a stopover at Mombasa and Mauritius as its final destination in November.

The flights which will be operating during the winter season which runs from November to March will operate on a Boeing 787 aircraft.

The market is also set to be competitive following the entry of Middle Eastern airline Qatar Airlines.

The airline is set to introduce direct flights from Mombasa to the Qatari capital Doha in December.

The 6-hour journey will be operated on an Airbus A320 carrier with a carrying capacity of more than 120 passengers.

Additional reporting by Janet Murikira

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