Aviation firm 748 Air Services has suspended its passenger flights business in Kenya in a move that will leave carriers such as Jambojet, Safarilink and Renegade Air, which also operates in some of its destinations, smiling.
The airline that last week suspended operations on the Nairobi- Kisumu route has now said it would also stop flying to Mombasa, Diani, Malindi and Maasai Mara temporarily effective March 1, 2023, indicating that the business has not performed as expected.
The Nairobi-Kisumu route is among those that suffered from low demand.
The carrier said its decision to temporarily suspend domestic scheduled flights in Kenya would allow it to concentrate its energy on the humanitarian aviation business, which is its core business at the moment.
“We are only suspending the domestic flights until further notice,” said managing director Moses Mwangi told the Business Daily last week.
“We intend to employ all our assets and staff in our core business. Our core business has always been humanitarian aviation with domestic scheduled flights contributing less than 10 percent of our business,” he said.
The airline started daily flights from Nairobi to Mombasa and Diani in June 2021. It started with two daily flights from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Terminal Two to Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
For the Nairobi-Diani route, there has been one daily flight from JKIA, Terminal Two to Ukunda Airport.
The airline started passenger operations on the Kisumu route in May 2021 from its hub at JKIA in Nairobi two times a day.
Passengers on the route were paying an introductory fare of Sh10,700 for a return air ticket – which is relatively lower than its competitors on the route.
