National courier Kenya Airways has suspended ticket sales from London to Nairobi, citing travel chaos pressure from Heathrow Airport.
According to KQ’s Managing Director Allan Kilavuka, KQ will not accept new bookings until the ban is lifted. However, passengers who had made prior reservations will be flown out.
The move comes a few days after Heathrow Airport authorities issued a directive for airlines to stop selling summer tickets. This is in order to maintain its 100,000 daily passengers cap, in a bid to reduce the long queues, cancellations and baggage retrieval delays at the airport.
While KQ complied with Heathrow’s directive, other airlines including Emirates and Etihad Airlines are yet to comply. The airlines have termed the directive as unacceptable, calling out the Airport’s management for what they call blatant disregard for customers.
This latest development is expected to reduce the courier’s earnings, and significantly affect the group’s financial performance for the third quarter. This is even as the company fight to turn around its fortunes after suffering significant losses in 2020 and 2021.
Earlier this month, the Airline re-elected Michael Joseph as Chairman of the company extending his contract by 3 years, to March 2025. Michael was also appointed to the group’s board of directors.
