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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

► KENYA: Virgin Atlantic to drop Nairobi from September 2012.

Virgin logo
Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways (VS) will, with effect from September 24, end its London Heathrow - Nairobi flights sighting low passenger numbers and higher overheads amongst other factors. No doubt, this will come as relief to Kenya Airways who in January 2012 issued a profit warning for the First Quarter of 2012.

Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic's B747-400

“During the past five years a combination of record fuel prices, higher and higher taxes imposed by the UK Government and a poorly timed slot not providing connections from London, have made it uneconomical to fly from Nairobi,” said Sir Branson in statement from London.

“For the past five years our team in Nairobi have worked incredibly hard and we hope to return should the economic situation change.”
Read More Here [Business Daily Kenya]

This comes at a time when various European carriers are axing various African routes citing route viability problems: of recent note Iberia (Johannesburg)TAP (Johannesburg).

Virgin Atlantic has stated, however, that it will maintain its other African routes to Accra, Lagos and Johannesburg.