Lufthansa announces return to Nairobi after 18-year absence

Until now, Lufthansa has relied on codeshared flights with partners Swiss and Brussels Airlines to connect their passengers to Nairobi. On October 27, Germany’s Lufthansa will return with nonstop flights from Frankfurt to Nairobi, after an absence of some 18 years. This will no doubt be welcomed by Kenya’s tourism and business community, considering the reputation of the airline and the boost for destination marketing.

Information at hand suggests that the Star Alliance member will initially offer four flights a week, leaving Frankfurt on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays before a fifth flight is added on December 11 operating on a Friday.

System information also confirms that the aircraft used will be a three-class Airbus A340-300 offering First, Business, and Economy class cabins.

Only a few days ago, the airline stated that route expansion will only take place to destinations where there can be a reasonably expectation of profits, and this seems to be the underlying cause for the gradual stepping up of frequencies instead of coming back with daily flights from the start.

When the airline discontinued flights to Nairobi, to the consternation of many at the time, after serving the route uninterrupted for decades, one of the reasons given was the advanced the sale of the Airbus A310 fleet, leaving them with no suitable alternative aircraft. Aviation pundits, however, tended to believe that the airline was not willing to accept the low yields on the route, in spite of very high load factors for their then daily flights. Lufthansa Cargo services notably continued throughout for the uplift of flowers and fresh produce from Kenya to the German and other European markets.