Kenya Airways continues flights into the Ebola zone

Reactions to Kenya Airways’ decision to continue flights into the Ebola zone of West Africa came in swift and sharp, the moment the airline posted the decision taken yesterday on their Facebook page.

Several members of parliament raised safety issues in the house while the WHO included Kenya as a Level 2 country, a step away from an active outbreak. This had triggered the review at the airline head office in Embakasi but the outcome was that Kenya Airways will continue flights, for now, serving 10 West African cities with a total of 44 weekly flights.

No such issues were raised in Ethiopia where Ethiopian Airlines also continues to fly to West Africa and yet was not included in the WHO Level 2 alert list, raising more questions than answers could be given by the World Health Organization.

The following statement was issued by Kenya Airways:

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Kenya Airways West Africa operations update
August 14, 2014 at 5:40pm

MEDIA UPDATE 5

Further to the general media update issued yesterday we have been in consultation with IATA, WHO and the Kenyan Ministry of Health over risks on air travel into and out of the ebola infected areas in West Africa. We have today received the following statement from IATA.

For all States, the following guidance is provided by WHO:

“There should be no general ban on international travel or trade; restrictions outlined in these recommendations regarding the travel of Ebola cases and contacts should be implemented.

States should provide travelers to Ebola affected and at-risk areas with relevant information on risks, measures to minimize those risks, and advice for managing a potential exposure.

The WHO advice to travelers is unchanged. It continues to state that the “The risk of a tourist or businessman/woman becoming infected with Ebola during a visit to the affected areas and developing the disease after returning is extremely low, even if the visit included travel to the local areas from which primary cases have been reported. Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animal, all unlikely exposures for the average traveler. Tourists are in any event advised to avoid all such contacts.”

Further, in conjunction with the Government of Kenya Health Authorities, we shall be sending a joint Rapid Situation Assessment team to Free Town and Monrovia to assess the management protocols on the ground. In the meantime, we continue to enforce strict contingency measures and as we continue to review our current position on a regular basis.

In view of all this advice the Management of Kenya Airways does not see a major risk that warrants stopping operations into the region. This means we will continue with our flights while reviewing the position on a daily basis.

We have been assured by the Ministry of Health authorities in the respective countries, including Kenya that the surveillance and screening at the airports conform to WHO guidelines. Further, we wish to confirm that in the interest of public safety for both our esteemed staff, passengers and equipment, we reserve the right to cancel our flights should the situation warrant.
Periodic media updates will be duly provided.

Thank you for flying ‘The Pride of Africa’.
Titus Naikuni
Group Managing Director & CEO
Kenya Airways

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In a related development it was learned that Korean Air, which operates codeshared flights with Kenya Airways between Seoul and Nairobi, has decided to halt their flights to Kenya after the WHO had put the country into the Level 2 list. Inexplicably did Isabelle Nuttall, Director of the WHO’s Department for Global Capacity, Alert and Response then tear into Korean, seemingly challenging the organization’s decision taken the day before when WHO had taken the step to list Kenya as a Level 2 country when she reportedly said: “In the coming days there will be rumors all over the world. Let’s all be ready to deal with these rumors. It’s not because you have fever and you come back from Sierra Leone that you have Ebola.”

While that may be true, it is also a fact that the failure of the West African governments of countries affected failed completely to take the initial outbreak seriously enough to impose a strict quarantine, similar to measures successfully taken by the Ugandan government when outbreaks occurred in the past, probably shy of human rights protests over curtailing the freedom of movement of people and “violating their rights” – clearly an empty concept when such a deadly disease is on the prowl. Emirates and British Airways had already suspended operations to the affected West African destinations, a fact apparently ignored by Nuttall before Korean Air presented itself as a more convenient target, and other airlines from the Gulf and Europa are equally rumored to consider their options in order to prevent any possible contributory action to a further international spread of the disease.