Private Pan African airline, Asky, has announced its entry to the Kenyan market, offering direct flights from Nairobi to Lomé, Togo, effective October 1, 2023.
The flights will be leaving to and from JKIA in Nairobi to the airline's hub, Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport in Lomé.
This new route adds to Asky’s list of destinations that it serves in West and Central Africa., a direct stab on Kenya Airways (KQ) which has been a dominant player in the Western Africa routes.
Already, the Kenyan national carrier is feeling the pain of its arch-rival, Ethiopian Airlines, which launched into the Western Africa bloc in 2010.
Ethiopian Airlines launched into the market with flights from Mombasa to Monrovia. The flight also covers Conakry in Guinea.
Both KQ and Ethiopian Airlines carriers have a similar strategy of ferrying passengers from West and Central Africa into their respective hubs — Nairobi for KQ and Addis Ababa for Ethiopian Airlines — from where they connect mostly to Southern Africa, the Middle East, India and Far East.
KQ aircraft fly 44 times a week to 10 West African cities, comprising nearly a third of the airline’s 36 destinations on the continent.
The entry of the Asky is therefore expected to complicate matters for KQ which has in recent times cut or rescheduled flights in the ongoing restructuring to cut on losses.
Prior to joining Kenya, Asky had introduced direct flights to Jo’Burg and Luanda.
The airline will fly a Boeing 737 Max three times a week from Nairobi to Lomé and vice versa.
Outbound flights from Nairobi will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while inbound flights will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.
This move is expected to tap into the travel demand from corporate travellers, traders as well as leisure travelers from West and Central African countries to Nairobi.
The Togolese airline now flies to 28 destinations in the continent, posing big competition to both KQ and Ethiopian Airlines which serves 34 and 63 destinations in Africa, respectively.
Speaking during a travel agents engagement dinner, Asky sales manager Aklesso Siro said this gives them a competitive advantage as they offer passengers direct links with shorter connections from West and Central Africa to Nairobi.
Siro said regional competitors such as KQ and Ethiopian Airlines lack the kind of connection they are bringing to the Kenyan market hence giving them a smooth headstart.
“The Kenyan economy is the third largest in Sub-Saharan Africa and even though we have come in late, we strongly believe that this is the perfect opportunity for us,” he said.
Siro also said their other competitive advantage is they have the best departure time from Nairobi which is 09:05 a.m.
“Our competitors have flights that leave as early as 4:00 am. We are bringing the best time performance and we are giving our clients time to get up and prepare well to get to the airport on time,” he added.
“In terms of fares, as a commercial airline, when we come into a new market we usually check its strengths and weaknesses in order to position ourselves, and hence why we consider our fares to be very competitive.”
Siro noted the airline has a mobile app that can be accessed, downloaded, and used by anyone on both iOS and Android platforms.
“We are determined to make things simpler, easier, and faster by using technology,” he said.
Having commenced operations in 2010, Siro said the airline started out small with two aircraft and now boasts of 15 as it plans to grow its business to the East Africa region.
Asky has been in a long-term strategic partnership with Ethiopian Airlines with whom it has a codeshare agreement via Addis Ababa.
Asky assistant sales manager for the Kenyan office, Denis Warui said their decision to join the East Africa market was fueled by the numerous times, local travel agents sold the airline to their West and Central African corporate clients.
“Kenyan travel agencies such as ATS, BCD, Elite Travel, FCM, Hemingways, and even Palbina kept pushing business to Asky and this was when we realised that we would be missing out if we did not tap into this market,” he said.
“Nairobi is a hub of Sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to travel and with a booming tourism sector, Asky would like to have a piece of the cake.”
Warui said they will also be offering passengers a limited luggage offer for a three-piece, 23kgs each for economy class and 32kgs each for business class, unlike most airlines that offer two pieces for luggage.
He also noted that they are open to partnerships with local airlines to expand business in terms of getting connecting flights within the country.
“We have started with passenger flights and maybe in the future, we will scale up and introduce cargo flights,” he said.
Asky is also offering Kenyan travel agents a six per cent commission on all sales done through the airline.