It is a race against time to get more flights on the Europe-Kenya route for the very high season, from the second half of December onward.
The much-ballyhooed "open skies policy," which last August seemed like it could be a reality, with the announcement of the arrival of Emirates and its low-cost carrier Fly Dubai at Mombasa's Moi International Airport, has in fact not yet been made official.
Fly Dubai itself has not yet announced the start of operations, but it may leave before the year-end holidays.

The 'early approval of the Open Sky Policy would open the door for other airlines, first and foremost Turkish Airlines for whom the Istanbul-Mombasa route would be a return after years of connecting not only with Italy (13 airports) and Europe, but with half the world.
The further news last month of Ethiopian's doubling of daily flights from Addis Ababa seemed a prelude to the final decision that does not mean "reckless openness to anyone who wants to invade Kenyan skies," as some early nationalists loyal to the (old) Kenya Airways line invoked.

Instead, as of mid-October, there is still no word on how the matter is evolving, and tourism associations are looking ahead, cooking soup with the vegetables they have in the garden.
Hopes, then, of seeing Turkish arrive for Christmas in Mombasa are slim. One credible sign is to see how other flag carriers, such as Lufthansa and KLM, are doing, which have already delayed the start of likely flight operations to the Kenyan coastal city for mid-2024.

It is clear that this delay effect constitutes a small advantage for Kenya Airways and its subsidiary Jambojet, which continue to connect the coast, not only Mombasa but also Diani (Ukunda), Malindi, and Lamu, always with the dropper and spadronizing with fares, but even more so for Ethiopian, which, together with Eurowings and Condor charters from Germany, Neos from Italy, and probably some Eastern European airlines, despite the still problematic situation between Russia and Ukraine, is the only one with direct access to the coast.

Italian tourism thus remains between two fires: on the one hand, the Kenyan national airline does not create direct flights, not even to Nairobi with connections to the coast as it did a few years ago, because it is in serious economic crisis with dynamics reminiscent of our ex-Alitalia, now ITA. On the other, it does not want to give space to other well-organized and more economically solid entities, for fear of losing their slice of the market as well. So flights remain few, quite expensive and those who choose Kenya always have too many difficulties, compared to other destinations.

In the voice of Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen and the one, last August, of President Ruto, the issue is being resolved, although the government's priority would be to sell Kenya Airways, as it has already done with the majority of shares in national communications operator Telkom to a Dubai company. But the former "pride of Africa," which until two decades ago was the most popular continental line, does not seem to be so attractive.

We will see if something will happen before Christmas, even if only a few flights added "last minute" and without exaggeratedly high prices.
That the only policy is not to open up for us some other thing than the skies....