Kenya: KQ to Fly Directly to China

The Nation (Nairobi)
15 October 2008
Posted to the web 16 October 2008

Kenya Airways (KQ) will launch direct flights to Guangzhou, China beginning October 28th 2008.

The airline's Communication Manager, Ms Victoria Kaigai at the same time said the airline has unveiled a new winter timetable with increased flights to Bangkok and Hong Kong.

The 12-hour flights to Guangzhou will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays on the airline's Boeing 777 aircraft.

KQ has been flying to Guangzhou through Dubai since 2005.

"KQ therefore becomes the first airline from sub-Sahara Africa to launch the non-stop flights from Nairobi to mainland China," said Kaigai.

The direct flight to Guangzhou becomes the third outside Africa. In Europe, the airline flies directly between Nairobi and London, and Nairobi to France.

Guangzhou is a major shopping destination for merchants from Africa, who connect through Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Apart from reducing their travel time by an estimated 20 per cent, travellers on the flights will also eliminate a 2-hour stop-over at Dubai.

Kaigai said frequencies to Bangkok will now go up from 6 to 7 times in a week while those to Hong Kong will move from 4 to 5 times a week.

the customs must make sure they don't bring any meat etc. into the country!
hopefully they can prevent to get bird flue into the country!

Pippa:

I'm even more concerned that ivory, wildlife skins and body parts and indeed live animals could be sneaked onto those planes and flown directly to China. One would hope that KWS will get some "sniffer dogs" that would alert them to contraband items and that they would seach each and every flight leaving for China.

of course it's as you say jan!

and i doubt all these customs officers are bold and refuse any money from chinese who are hiding ivory etc.

they will find loopholes all over the place :'(

I actually think this may be quite hard as customs control in Kenya is severe. Mot items inported are through the docks - via sea.

I've been assured by KWS that they have some excellent "sniffer dog" teams that will be patrolling the airports as well as Mombasa port for evidence of any wildlife products people may be trying to smuggle out of Kenya.

Let's hope that they have a very high success rate!