KQ protest halts Fastjet’s comeback bid
The budget airline Fastjet plane. The airline which was unable to secure a licence to operate from Nairobi in 2013, is at the centre of the latest spat between Kenya and Tanzania. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Fastjet, which exited the local market in June by selling its stake in Fly540, made its licence application two months later hoping for clearance from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).
- The objections to Fastjet come at a time when low-cost airlines have been expanding locally offering a growing number of business travellers and domestic tourists highly discounted fares.
- National carrier KQ in February launched JamboJet, its budget airline which flies between Mombasa, Eldoret, Nairobi and Mombasa, some of the routes that Fastjet is also eyeing.
Kenya Airways has scuttled Fastjet’s plans to make a comeback in the Kenyan market after its complaints about the budget airline saw the regulator defer granting the firm an operating licence.
Fastjet, which exited the local market in June by selling its stake in Fly540, made its licence application two months later hoping for clearance from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).
The firm plans to start operations from scratch after its earlier bid to convert Fly540 into a low-cost carrier failed.
KQ, which operates low-cost carrier, JamboJet, is one of the airlines which raised objections about Fastjet’s planned re-entry, signalling rising competition in the nascent budget airline business.
Fastjet’s licence deferral was published in the latest edition of the Kenya Gazette.
“We have received complaints from the likes of Kenya Airways and African Safaris and other airlines about some aspects of Fastjet’s operation,” KCAA acting director-general Joseph Kiptoo told the Business Daily.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS
“We have already forwarded these complaints to Fastjet and we are awaiting their response. Once they respond, we will grant them another licence application hearing.”
Mr Kiptoo did not specify the objections raised by the airlines.
A licence application requires an airline to file details on its operation, network and commercial strategy, aspects which are open to scrutiny by the regulator and stakeholders.
The airline intends to operate international flights to and from Europe, Middle East, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Sudan among other countries as well as domestic flights between the cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret.
The objections to Fastjet come at a time when low-cost airlines have been expanding locally offering a growing number of business travellers and domestic tourists highly discounted fares.
National carrier KQ in February launched JamboJet, its budget airline which flies between Mombasa, Eldoret, Nairobi and Mombasa, some of the routes that Fastjet is also eyeing.
JamboJet’s air tickets are going for Sh2,950 one-way, representing a discount of about 65 per cent on the parent company’s rates.
SouthEast Airlines launched domestic flights in August with a one-way ticket to Mombasa priced at Sh4,950.
Fastjet currently offers fares that are as low as Sh1,760 on some of its Tanzanian routes. The firm has not given any indication of its pricing strategy for Kenya.
The article first appeared in The Business Daily.
