Low-cost carrier Jambojet will fly to Goma in the DRC next month, its first regional destination
Prior to the health crisis, Jambojet had started building its regional network by opening services to Entebbe (February 2018), Mogadishu (November 2018) and Kigali (November 2019). The low-cost subsidiary of Kenya Airways also offered flights to Bujumbura on behalf of its parent company. All its routes were suspended last year due to the pandemic.
Jambojet has announced the opening of a new service to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From 10 September, the low-cost subsidiary of Kenya Airways will offer two weekly flights between Nairobi and the capital of North Kivu province. On Mondays and Fridays, flight JM8540 will depart from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 11.40am and arrive in Goma at 12.40pm. In the opposite direction, flight JM8541 will leave the Congo at 13:40 and land in Nairobi at 16:40 local time.
The route will be operated, without competition, with its homogeneous Dash8-400 fleet of six aircraft with an average age of 3.3 years.
As part of its expansion strategy, Jambojet is also targeting the Comoros Islands (Moroni), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Malawi (Lilongwe, Blantyre), DRC (Kisangani), Somalia (Mogadishu, Hargeisa), South Sudan (Juba) and Tanzania (Dar-es-Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza and Zanzibar). Applications have been made to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) for a licence to do so in 2019.
Launched in April 2014, Jambojet has already carried more than 3 million passengers on its network, which in addition includes six domestic routes (Eldoret, Kisumu, Malindi, Mombasa, Nairobi and Ukunda). Karanja Ndegwa has been the acting CEO since May 2020 following the promotion of Allan Kilavuka as CEO of Kenya Airways Plc Group.
