Kenya Insights

Tag: captain Hussein Mohammed

  • Bluebird Aviation Charters Flights For Stranded KQ Passengers

    Bluebird Aviation Charters Flights For Stranded KQ Passengers

    As Kenya Airways pilots strike enters its fourth day, passengers continue to cancel their flights and many are left stranded.

    To fill the void, Bluebird Aviation has announced it is ready to help ease current flight disruptions in the country by booking stranded passengers for charter flights following a strike by Kenya airways pilots.

    Bluebird Aviation General Manager, Captain Hussein Mohammed said while other small operators have begun recording an increase in enquiries and bookings, it is ready to take up passengers on charter flights.

    ”We are ready to take in passengers on charter flight basis. We welcome all passengers currently stranded in various airports to come and savour our unrivalled experience with more customised services,” said Captain Mohammed.

    Following the strike, Kenya Airways on Saturday requested its passengers to cancel their tickets for other available airlines.

    KQ declared the strike illegal and claimed they’re making loses in millions.

  • COVID-19 Has Drastically Impacted The Air Charter

    COVID-19 Has Drastically Impacted The Air Charter

    Regional airline, Bluebird Aviation has today said Air Charter business travel has been drastically impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic as many customers opt to work from home and most business transactions moved online.

    Air Charter simply means, ‘Air Taxi’ where an airline takes you to a destination, waits for you to transact your business and then flies you back.

    Bluebird Aviation General Manager, Captain Hussein Mohammed said because of people working from home, the business segment has been affected in terms of those dedicated charter airlines.

    “This Business segment has been drastically affected by virtue of the fact that you can transact business in a zoom meeting and electronically you can now transact business. So technology has evolved to an extent where you are able to transact business without having to go to a physical destination like Singapore or London,”said Captain Mohammed.

    He added, “Assuming Air Charter business was say 70 per cent pre-COVID times, Charters are now down about 20 to 30 per cent.”

    Bluebird Charter Planes.

    Medical Charter has also reduced drastically, since most patients being transferred from point A to point B are COVID-19 positive.

    “No airline wants to expose their staff, both cockpit and cabin crew to COVID. Most airlines want to first know the medical status of the passenger before they start evacuation. Most of these cases are referred to airlines that are specially equipped for medical evacuation,” said Captain Mohamed.

    However, commercial airlines business travel has been enhanced to a little extent by the virtue of the fact that those who can afford it and want to fly, there is sufficient social distancing and more room in the business class.

  • Airline Travellers’ Confidence Growing Slowly, Report

    Airline Travellers’ Confidence Growing Slowly, Report

    Regional airline, Bluebird Aviation has expressed optimism of more people flying for leisure and business soon on growing confidence of travellers in Kenya and across the globe.

    Bluebird Aviation General Manager, Captain Hussein Mohammed said travellers’ confidence to be able to fly and the feeling that one’s health is not going to be affected and that they are not fearful of COVID-19 is growing but at a slow pace.

    “That confidence is improving albeit slowly and laboriously, but eventually we will be there,” said Captain Mohammed.

    Bluebird fleet.

    He added, “Initially I had thought that by the end of this year, that improvement would have increased significantly, but with what is going on in places like India, and low vaccination numbers in our country and limited availability and accessibility of vaccines has impacted on the growing confidence to fly again.”

    A report by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) indicates that African airlines lost $10.21 (about Sh1.1 trillion) in passenger revenue in 2020 when the travel industry was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    According to the report, number of scheduled passengers carried by African airlines fell by 63.7 per cent from 95 million in 2019 to 34.7 million in 2020.

    “It will take about the end of 2022 for most travellers to regain the confidence to fly again and when a larger population would have gotten at least the first dose of the vaccines.” said Captain Mohammed.

    Kenya prioritized the vaccination plan to most vulnerable groups. So far, a total of 1,113,158 people had been vaccinated by Sunday among them 986,881 who have received their while 126,277 have received their second dose.