The low load factor has seen the budget carrier combine passengers travelling to Eldoret and Kisumu on selected flights.
Ideally, the airline would have direct flights to Kisumu and Eldoret on a normal day, but low numbers have seen passengers travelling to Eldoret International Airport pass through Kisumu for the airlines to drop and pick travellers going to Nairobi, in what is referred to as a triangular flight in aviation parlance.
“We have had to combine some of the flights because of low numbers of passengers,” said the airline’s communications office.
At Eldoret, the airline will pick more passengers who are heading to Nairobi, with the new arrangement resulting in about 30 minute delay on affected flights.
The low numbers have been occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the world disrupting major activities, with the transport sector coming to a near paralysis following the grounding of over 90 percent of the world’s airlines.
Low demand locally has seen the fares drop by almost half in most of the routes as carriers grapple with lack of passengers amid high capacity, which has forced Jambojet to cut on its frequencies in all the routes.
“Following a decline in passenger numbers due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Jambojet wishes to inform its customers and the general public that we have reduced our flight frequencies to all local destinations,” said the airline.
Average fares levied by the budget carrier Jambojet in most of the routes have dropped to a low of Sh3,800 in almost all destinations from an average of Sh6,000, highlighting the negative impact that the pandemic is having on airlines.
Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ, which has been charging as high as Sh12,000 for a one-way ticket to Mombasa and Kisumu previously is now levying Sh6,050 to the Port City of Mombasa and Kisumu. The national carrier will be grounding all its international flights this week following a directive by the Ministry of Health on Sunday.
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