Kenya Airways on Thursday announced they have launched flights to Rome, Italy and Geneva, Switzerland – the airline’s 4th and 5th European destinations after Amsterdam, London and Paris.
Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Mikosz said that the introduction of the routes is part of Kenya Airways’ network expansion strategy steered towards growing its market share, increasing revenues and financial turnaround.
“These new routes will play an important role in facilitating more business and tourism opportunities and strengthening Nairobi as the top business hub.With 5 European destinations and 55 worldwide from Nairobi, Kenya Airways offers Africa the best connectivity to the rest of the world and vice versa,” he said.
Geneva city is renowned as a global hub for diplomacy and banking as it hosts a number of international organisations in the world including the United Nations (UN).
According to the airline, this complements Nairobi which is Africa’s hub for the UN among other international agencies.
The launch of this direct route completes the circuit across the UN Headquarters in New York – Nairobi –Geneva, making logistics and connectivity easier for travelers, the airline noted.
The Geneva flights will be connected to Nairobi as circular flights with Rome, Italy, which is one of Kenya’s top source markets for corporate and leisure travellers. Over 65,000 tourists from Italy visited Kenya in 2018.
As part of the strategy to capture these travellers and boost Kenya’s tourism industry, Kenya Airways this week commenced direct fights between Nairobi and Malindi, the primary destination for most Italian tourists and also home to a large proportion of the Italian community in Kenya.
The airline has also finalized a codeshare deal with Alitalia, the Italian SkyTeam’s partner, to enhance connectivity on this route and offer more options to passengers in Italy and from Africa.
Kenya Airways was voted Africa’s leading Airline, Business class, for the 6th time in a row and for the 2nd time as Africa’s leading airline, Economy class, in this year’s World Travel Awards.
The airline will operate the new routes four times weekly using its flagship aircraft Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
JK/abj/APA