Safarilink to woo business travellers as tourism dips
A Safarilink plane prepares to take off at the Ukunda airstrip. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP |
What you need to know:
- Safarilink operates daily flights from Wilson Airport to Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Diani, Lamu, Lewa Downs, Naivasha, and Nanyuki.
Safarilink airline —a predominantly tourist carrier — is to diversify to business traffic to stay afloat.
This comes after the tourism sector took a dive due to insecurity, introduction of 16 per cent value-added tax on transportation of tourists, and high park fees charged by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Safarilink managing director John Buckley said the airline had applied for a licence to introduce flights from Wilson Airport in Nairobi to Eldoret, Kitale, and Lodwar.
He said the aim was to diversify from transportation of tourists to national parks and the coast to ferrying business travellers to the three towns.
Mr Buckley attributed the tourism slump to terrorism, including the Nairobi Westgate Mall attack last September.
Other factors which have affected the sector, he added, include the rise in VAT and park fees.
He said that since last year, Tanzania was attracting more tourists than Kenya since it had not increased VAT on tourist transport. The new VAT had added Sh21 million ($250,000) extra cost to the airline, he said.
Mr Buckley said the sector could rebound if the national government addressed insecurity and reviewed the VAT rate.
In an interview with Smart Company at Leopard Beach Resort in Diani on the sidelines of a celebration to mark the airlines’ 10th anniversary, he said Safarilink had, nonetheless, registered growth since its inception in 2004 with just two leased aircrafts.
The airline now has eight Cessna Caravan aircraft worth $10 million (Sh866 million).
Last December, the airline bought a newer model, Cessna Caravan EX, from the United States at $2.5 million (Sh216 million). The bigger planes are 37-seaters while the smaller ones are 12-seaters.
The airline has 95 employees, up from eight, 10 years ago. Passenger numbers have soared to 13,000 a year, up from 29 in January 2004.
Safarilink operates daily flights from Wilson Airport to Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Diani, Lamu, Lewa Downs, Naivasha, and Nanyuki.
Other destinations include Kiwayu, Shaba, Samburu, Loisaba, Tsavo West, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
