Hiiraan Online
Thursday January 11, 2018
Nairobi (HOL) - Kenya Airways will soon become the first airline to offer direct flights from East Africa to New York, according to Kenya Airway's Managing Director, Sebastian Mikosz.
Kenya Airways will begin selling tickets for the inaugural flight that is scheduled to begin in Oct.28, 2018.
“This is an exciting moment for us. It fits within our strategy to attract corporate and high-end tourism traffic from the world to Kenya and Africa. We are honoured to contribute to the economic growth of Kenya and East Africa.” said Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and CEO Sebastian Mikosz.
The national carrier has fulfilled one of the three requirements by the United States to Government to operate non-stop flights to New York. "We hope to complete the other tasks in the next ten months," he added.
Kenya Airways already travels to Europe, Middle-East, the Indian sub-continent and Asia. It will be the fastest connection from East Africa to New York, clocking in a total of 15 hours eastbound and 14 hours westbound and will be operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It will be Kenya's first ultra-long-haul flight.
The flight will depart every day from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport hub in Nairobi at 23:25 arriving at JFK airport in New York at 06:25 the following day. From New-York it will depart at 12:25 landing at JKIA at 10:55 the following day. Its duration will be 15 hours eastbound and 14 hours westbound.