US direct flight cancelled over security fears

The direct flights planned by an American airline to Nairobi were on Tuesday cancelled over security concerns.

This followed a decision by the United States Department of Homeland Security to seek more time to review the Delta Airlines’ Atlanta-Nairobi flights, the airline said in a statement issued by its publicists in Nairobi.

The inaugural flight was supposed to touch down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 4pm on Wednesday from Atlanta, Georgia, after a stopover in Dakar, Senegal. This would have marked the beginning of direct flights between Kenya and the US.

Although the Kenyan Government, through spokesman, Alfred Mutua, maintained that the reasons for the postponement are still not clear, the security situation could have informed the decision.

“The Government of Kenya has complied with all the additional security measures requested by Delta and the Nairobi airport’s security is excellent,” Dr Mutua said in a statement.

The new development, especially in the wake of increasing militia activities in Somalia such as those by the al-Shabaab Islamists, may have changed the perception of the officials of the Department of Homeland Security.

Had cleared

The department had cleared the flight, according to a press release issued by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) on April 17, 2009.

A statement e-mailed to newsrooms by the US Embassy in Nairobi on Tuesday evening attributed the flight’s cancellation to “last minute issues.”

“We continue to work with the Government of Kenya and Delta to enable service from Atlanta to Nairobi to begin as soon as possible .We appreciate the substantial effort made by the Government of Kenya to meet international aviation standards,” said the embassy.