Kenya Airways offers tickets at half price for health staff

Healthcare workers can now book Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ tickets at half price as the carrier seeks to shore up revenues following increase in losses over Covid-19 related woes.

The national airline said on Tuesday that air fares would be going at a 50 percent discount for the workers on the frontline of battling coronavirus for both economy and business class.

This means that a healthcare worker flying to Mombasa from its hub in Nairobi on an economy ticket will pay Sh6,045 and Sh7,217 for business class. The return trip will cost Sh9,582 and Sh13,820 respectively.

The offer is available from September 30 and allows health workers to purchase the discounted air tickets on any of KQ’s 20 destinations.

“Eligibility to buy air ticket at 50 percent discount requires that one must be a frontline health worker i.e. nurses, doctors and clinical researchers with a health worker identification which must be shown at the time of purchase and at check-in,” said KQ on Tuesday.

When buying an air ticket, KQ said that healthcare workers will be required to scan their IDs and send to the contact centre.

Cancellations or refunds before departure are permitted free of charge, but not after flights take off, the carrier said.

The offer comes at a time when the aviation industry is in turmoil following the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 that saw airlines around the world grounded.

KQ resumed domestic flights in mid-July while international travel started on August 1.

The carrier last month forecasted passenger numbers to remain at half of its capacity for the remainder of the year citing reduced demand for air travel.

Kenya Airways posted a net loss for the six months ended June 2020 of Sh14.33 billion on account of Covid-19 disruptions that led to grounding of flights.

The airline said passenger numbers dropped by 55.5 percent to 1.1 million in contrast with 2.4 million over the same period last year, hurting revenues.