Local aviation industry players are hesitant about the open sky policy, fearing it could curtail the growth of local airlines.
Officials of Skyward Express, a local low-budget airline, said on Wednesday there must be a balance between promoting local industry players and gaining tourism numbers.
The airline argued the open sky policy should not hinder the growth of homegrown aviation firms.
“I know there are a lot of people from travel agencies, hoteliers and many other people interested in tourism asking the government to try and open skies so they can come in direct from Europe and elsewhere,” Skyward Express chairman Captain Mohamed Abdi said.
“But I’ll tell you, governor (Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir), as much as that is a good initiative, we also need to build capacities as local companies.”
He spoke at the Moi International Airport during the launch of the inaugural Skyward Express scheduled flight from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam. Nassir was the chief guest.
“I’m sure you remember during Covid our local industries were not even able to produce masks. We could not make masks. We were importing masks from China and that cuts across all industries and factories,” Abdi said.
“So we need to build capacity. We need to build our small airlines to compete with these big airlines.”
Governor Nassir said as much as there is need to push for an open sky policy, it should not be at the expense of local companies.
“We need to provide extra tax incentives to provide an extra push for local companies like Skyward and others to allow them to have a competitive edge,” Nassir said.
He said one of the incentives could be restricting inter-county flights to be restricted to local airlines.
“But for purposes of bringing in passengers from abroad, if we have an open sky policy, Mombasa can easily be opened up to 300+ cities across the world and the GDP of this country is definitely going to be better with more passengers coming in,” Nassir said.
The county chief said the more the coastal airports are utilised, the more the region is opened up.
He said this new flight, coupled with the finished Dongo Kundu bypass that has made the road trip from Mombasa to Diani faster, and the impending completion of the Mombasa-Malindi highway, will reduce travel time between the coastal counties immensely.
He said the Kenya Airports Authority will be among the beneficiaries when many airlines jet into Mombasa and other coastal counties.
“Not only that, it will also give local companies an opportunity to have more planes based in Mombasa to fly to Kilifi, Diani, Taita and Lamu,” he said.
KAA chairman Caleb Kositany said the authority is always proud whenever a local company grows. Kositany said the new flight is an opening for tourism, trade and cultural exchange.
He said the aviation industry is growing and Kenyans are flying more, necessitating more investment in the airports.
“At KAA, we want to expand our facilities. Our facilities are strained. We have a big issue. We always have huge crowds at our airports. We are working to expand so that we can give you an easier space and a friendly environment whenever you are within the presence of our airports,” Kositany said.
Founded in 2013, Skyward Express has grown to be one of the prominent airlines in Kenya, whose flight from Wilson Airport to Mombasa was eight years ago. Since then, there are two more flights from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Mombasa, one in the morning and one in the evening.
“We had to build capacity and get a bigger plane, a jet. We had to be able to compete with the other airlines,” Abdi said.
He said clients wanted to reach Mombasa faster than the one hour they were taking from Nairobi.
“So now we are competing with
them. We are here in 40 minutes
from Nairobi,” Abdi said.
The Mombasa-Dar es Salaam flight
is 25 minutes. Nassir said this will
greatly cut travel time for travellers
from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam.