Kenya government wants traffic rights for Japan

The Kenyan government has requested Japan to consider giving traffic rights to Kenya Airways to establish a direct flight between Kenya and Japan.

Presently, Japanese tourists have to use either Emirates or other Gulf-based or European-based airlines to find their way to Nairobi and the other East African centers, making for layovers and longer flight routes.

With the world economy now clearly on the way to recovery this is the appropriate time to look ahead and pave the way to tap into new source markets for tourists coming to Eastern Africa – and this correspondent for one has no quarrels to see such passengers connect in Nairobi and then fly on to their final destination, be it Entebbe, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Kigali or Bujumbura.

The Kenya Tourism Board is said to be in full support of this governmental initiative as they too are seeking to diversify their source markets and explore new and emerging markets in Eastern Europe and the Far and South East Asia, and any potential direct air route between the Far and South East to Nairobi would very much be in support of their present marketing activities.

At this time, however, no information was available if Kenya Airways would indeed commence services to Japan in the near future, considering the delay in the delivery of its ordered Boeing 787s.