In the aftermath of Turkish flag carrier Turkish Airlines admitting, in a statement explaining the reasons for the cancellation of all direct flights from Istanbul to Mombasa until October 29, 2022, the Kenyan coastal tourism industry takes the field and says it is very concerned about the current situation that does not allow other airlines to access an "Open Sky" policy, i.e., to have the possibility of scheduling their routes to Africa considering also Mombasa's Moi International Airport.

This is quite a paradoxical situation, because after archiving the dramatic period of the pandemic, the travel sector is on a decent upswing and demand for Kenya is good, indeed recorded by operators as one of the highest ever, not only on the African continent.
A summit of Kenya Coast Association members was held in Mombasa last week to discuss the liberalization of licenses for Mombasa, a topic on which the association of hoteliers and tourism-related entrepreneurs is pushing hard. In this regard, they also met with executives from Qatar Airways, Emirates and KLM who said they are ready to fly to Kenya's second largest city.
Yesterday, one of the Kenyan experts in the field, an influential figure who has always been among the most active in the Kenya Tourist Federation, Mohammed Hersi, addressed a public letter to President Kenyatta to try to stir the pot starting with the summit.

"Mombasa (in the past, thanks in part to its politics), was supported by airlines and at our peak we were getting 37 charters a week, which then dried up for various reasons. In 2014/15 the wave of terrorist attacks hurt us badly, and in 2020 Covid 19 was the coup de grace that sent tourism on the Kenyan coast into a tailspin," Hersi wrote to Kenyatta's address. "Mr. President, we have yet to recover from that commotion. We are well aware that we want to protect our flag carrier and we support it, but certainly not at the expense of other legitimate businesses."
Top local tourism officials are of the same opinion as Hersi, namely that it is certainly not the ban on other companies entering Mombasa that will make Kenya Airways stronger, but rather the lack of competition will make the destination much weaker anyway.
"How can you miss what you never had? - Hersi asks - When will Kenya Airways ever fly to 20 cities in Germany or 10 cities in the UK or 20 cities in North America? Turkish airlines, which was supposed to resume and connect Mombasa to over 320 cities, has been stopped. The "Open Sky" policy has lifted the fortunes of destinations such as Durban and Cape Town in South Africa, so why deny Mombasa and the Kenyan coast?"
Hersi and tourism associations recall that the Kenyan coast would like to resume filling more than 40,000 beds on the coast from Shimoni to Lamu and inland from Tsavo to Taveta.
Kenya's most influential coastal tourism manager closes his open letter with a metaphor: "Our national airline is behaving like the proverbial "Joka La Mdimu," the snake that clings to the juiciest lemon tree but does not eat the lemon itself. Mr. President, you have the powers to allow us to taste the lemon from the Mombasa tree. Please do so."