Kenya Airways has announced the launch of direct Mombasa-Dubai flights during the December holiday season, thus giving a boost to tourism on Kenya's coast and at the same time a chance for many affluent Kenyans to travel to one of their favorite destinations among those reachable within a few hours' flight time.
The news is also seen as a first step in reopening the skies of Kenya's second largest city, a coastal hub par excellence, to other companies eager to land directly within reach of the Indian Ocean and destinations that make thousands of travelers dream, especially in the winter season.
In a statement, the Kenyan national airline said it will begin flying from Moi International Airport to Dubai during the peak tourism period.
Hoteliers praised the move, saying it will boost the sector that has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic, among their calls for an open skies policy to allow international airlines to land at the Coast's largest airport. Tourism investors, led by Kenya Tourism Board director Bobby Kamani, welcomed the announcement, adding that they are confident that the new government and the incoming team leading the Ministry of Tourism will understand the value of the open skies policy.
Not only the national airline, then to fly from Mombasa to foreign destinations and vice versa, but also all those flights that had stalled on the fateful March 2020 or whose plans had been postponed, such as the KLM Amsterdam-Mombasa flight, which has not yet obtained licenses, and the Turkish Istambul-Mombasa flight that deludes travelers every time, only to reprotect them to Nairobi.
The new Minister of Tourism, Peninah Malonza, has been urged to work with his counterpart in the Ministry of Transport to implement the policy of opening up the stopovers to allow international flights to Mombasa to fill the more than 40,000 hotel beds on the Coast.
Lately Emirates and low-cost Fly Dubai, as well as Qatar airways, have also applied to fly to the coastal city. "If these airlines fly to Mombasa, we will have traffic to fill our beds and create additional employment," said Kenya Coast Tourism Association (KCTA) President Victor Shitakha.