Why Kenya is right to celebrate direct flights to New York City

What you need to know:

  • The strategic nature of national carriers to governments is what has reignited conversations about the revival of Uganda Airlines and Nigerian Airways.

  • One of the newest entrants into the fray, Rwanda’s RwandAir, IS slowly carving out a niche for itself, turning Kigali into a little regional aviation hub.
  • Ethiopian Airlines, now an old hand in the game, continues to grow stronger, having situated Addis Ababa as a leading transit point.

Last Sunday, Kenya’s national carrier Kenya Airways made its much anticipated maiden direct and nonstop flight to the United States of America, landing at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

It had taken a lot of negotiations and mandatory upgrades — security and otherwise — at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, including the completion of a new state-of-the-art terminal, for the airline to be granted the greenlight for the direct flight.

POMP AND COLOUR

Expectedly, there was pomp and colour before take-off in Nairobi and on arrival in New York, this having been preceded by a series of build- up events, some graced by President Uhuru Kenyatta, with the pre- and post-flight events attracting the presence of Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma, Kenya’s Ambassador to the US Robinson Njeru Githae and the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lazarus Amayo.

SMALL VICTORY

To sceptics, the thought of celebrating a new flight route seemed absurd, with some arguing that this was too small a victory to celebrate, seeing that humanity has marked major feats — including in aviation — dating back to decades ago, many citing the 1969 Apollo 11 mission in which renowned American astronaut Neil Armstrong and his pilot Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.

Yet to others, possibly in the majority, the flight was something worth celebrating since, for the first time, Kenyan travellers and American citizens flying to Kenya or to the region will take a single flight to their destination.

A MILESTONE

However, beyond travel, there is something more which the authorisation of the flight signals.

By all accounts, the flight is without a doubt a considerable milestone, a confirmation that in terms of international aviation standards, both Kenya and its national carrier have attained a higher ranking, giving confidence to travellers and anyone else who may have been considering Kenya for commercial or other interests.

STRINGENT TERMS

In a word, the unveiling of the new route implies that if it chooses to put its mind to it, Kenya and its businesses have the capacity of meeting any world class requirements in any given sector, seeing that the aviation industry is one of the most stringent in terms of compliance.

SOFT DIPLOMACY

The other angle to look at why the new route is important is that governments have for the longest time used the aviation industry as a pivotal launch pad for their national ambition, communicating to the rest of the world through the destinations their airlines ply that they have attained some level of metaphoric arrival, that they too want to be seen, heard and recognised.

Beyond ferrying passengers and cargo, national carriers — like national sporting teams — have always been deployed as tools for soft diplomacy, as well as canvases for prime-time branding campaigns due to the large number and broad spectrum of travellers they interact with.

REINVENT ITSELF

Like sporting teams, from time to time airlines have been known to undergo their fair share of struggles, but have equally been known to survive and recover. Kenya Airways, like any other African airline which may not benefit from huge capital investments from the state like, say, Emirates, Qatar or Etihad, all of which are beneficiaries of the Middle Eastern petro-dollar economy, has seen its better share of gloom due to the occasional dipping profits.

Yet The Pride of Africa, as the airline promotes itself, has somehow always found a way to persist and reinvent itself, giving hope despite moments of difficulty.

TRANSIT POINT

The strategic nature of national carriers to governments is what has reignited conversations about the revival of Uganda Airlines and Nigerian Airways, with one of the newest entrants into the fray, Rwanda’s RwandAir, slowly carving out a niche for itself, turning Kigali into a little regional aviation hub with its mostly intra-Africa flights.

Ethiopian Airlines, now an old hand in the game, continues to grow stronger, having situated Addis Ababa as a leading transit point.

CUT-THROAT

On the other hand, South African Airways — into which millions of dollars have been pumped but which has yet to yield profit since 2011 — may face closure following what the country’s new Finance Minister Tito Mboweni recently termed his government’s inability to either resolve the situation any time soon or find a private investor willing to pump in additional capital into the airline.

It is in this cut-throat environment where governments propel their national carriers as much as possible that Kenya Airways is operating, and much as the airline has more work to do — like considering more intra-Africa routes and streamlining its service delivery further — the new route is a valuable addition whose dividends will show and should, therefore, be celebrated.