Kenya aviation breaking news – KQ confirms B787 compensation by Boeing

KENYA AIRWAYS CONFIRMS BOEING COMPENSATION OVER B787 DELAYS

Kenya Airways has now finally confirmed what must have been one of the worst kept secrets in their corporate history, that they did receive compensation ‘in cash and kind’ from Boeing over the near intolerable delays in the delivery of the so called ‘Dreamliner’, which a more outspoken source at the airline termed ‘a nightmare for our development plans’.

The source at KQ would not be drawn into the extent of the overall compensation, which however is thought to be major considering that the first two B787’s were supposed to be joining the KQ fleet late last year and no deliveries are now expected before the end of 2013 while more aircraft, most urgently needed to replace the ageing B767 fleet and up capacity, will only come to Kenya by between 2014 and 2015.

Kenya Airways, according to another source wishing to remain anonymous, did also play Boeing’s soft spot, if not outright paranoia when introducing talks with Airbus over the purchase of A330 models, a viable option for KQ at the time since major shareholder KLM is operating the same aircraft in their fleet and the constant talk by senior KQ personnel at the time must have rattled Boeing more than just a little and making them more receptive to compensation demands, especially as financial losses are estimated to run into the 300 million US Dollar plus range in costly B767 refurbishments, added heavy maintenance cost and higher fuel burn.

Kenya Airways in April this year finally signed 9 firm orders for the B787 with several more options thought to eventually become firm orders too, but not before agreeing on a hefty compensation package from Boeing, at which stage the talks with Airbus, if ever those had truly advances, declared ‘over’.

A regular source at KQ also ruled out the recent firm order for 10 Embraer 190AR and options for a further 10 Embraer 170 and 190 models as ‘retaliation towards Boeing’, insisting that the airline’s choice for the Embraers was dictated by the need to be flexible on domestic, regional and continental routes where the larger Boeing B737-700’s and B737-800’s were ‘too large for viable operations’ and where a smaller and very economical jet was needed. A detailed report about the Embraer purchase by Kenya Airways was filed here a few days ago giving all the details. 

 

 

 

Seychelles aviation news update – ‘HM’ reorganisation introduces second Deputy CEO position

AIR SEYCHELLS REORGANISATION CONTINUES

Information was received overnight from sources in Victoria that Air Seychelles ongoing reorganization has now created a second Deputy CEO’s position for Corporate Affairs, which is most likely to be filled through an internal promotion rather than recruitment from outside, and will be held by a Seychellois citizen rather than an expatriate. The new position, reporting to the CEO of the airline, will oversee the departments of administration, legal affairs, finance, human resources, training and information technology including communications, leaving the field of operations and related fields like maintenance under ‘the other’ Deputy CEO already in place.

Watch this space when an announcement will be made after a suitable candidate has been selected and installed in his or her new position.

 

Tanzania news update – More blackouts ahead for Tanzanian hotels and resorts

POWER RATIONING HITS TANZANIA AGAIN

The national power company TANESCO has announced yesterday that power rationing would be getting worse in coming days and weeks for the mainland and Zanzibar, as water levels in the main reservoirs of the hydro electric dams were continuing to fall as a result of insufficient rains and ongoing drought conditions.

Combined with thermal power plants also running below capacity, reportedly due to a lack of enough diesel to run them, this will leave the country short by as much as 250 MW capacity, leading to rolling black outs aka ‘load shedding’, when industries, manufacturers, businesses, hotels and resort but mainly households will find themselves without power and having to resort to the expensive use of stand by generators.

In particular the hospitality industry has warned of the consequences of this development, as combined with runaway inflation and record lows of the Tanzania Shilling against major international currencies their business environment is becoming increasingly difficult to predict and to manage.

Safari operators too have complained to this correspondent of the new measures, claiming that running their offices is becoming erratic in the absence of mains power while some of the venues they regularly use for lunches or to buy cold soft drinks along the main safari routes are often now without power, unable to render services as is expected of them.

Asks this correspondent in closing why our power companies are always way behind demand struggling to close the demand and supply gap instead of moving ahead of demand peaks by installing, if necessary using private public partnerships like Bujagali in Uganda, the added capacities needed in anticipation of growing consumption of electricity. 

 

Kenya aviation breaking news – KAA releases tender documents for new JKIA terminal

KENYA AIRPORT AUTHORITY FINALLY PUBLISHES TENDERS FOR NEW JKIA TERMINAL

The long awaited tender documents for a brand new terminal building at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have been published yesterday, opening the door for international bidding to go underway. The ‘stand alone’ new facility, which is expected to be connected to the existing terminal buildings by bus service, will when ready offer up to 50 check in counters, 8 air bridges for aircraft to dock – including meeting the specifications to serve the giant A 380 – and a further up to 45 aircraft parking stands on the linked apron space, also due to be constructed alongside the terminal, plus links to existing and new taxiways and an additional runway.

The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was officially launched in 1978, witnessed by this correspondent, and emerged from the former Embakasi Airport, now the headquarters of Kenya Airways, which at the time was bursting at the seams and where the story goes that it was impossible to fall down considering the mass of human beings in the arrival and departure hall.

When opened JKIA was to cater for a maximum of 2.5 million passengers, now exceeded by more than twice as many, as statistics of 2010 speak of over 6.2 million passengers being herded through overcrowded facilities. The country’s tourism industry had highlighted the constraints of JKIA and of Moi International Airport in Mombasa as key elements in NOT allowing the country to reach its full potential of visitors while airlines have often voiced their equal concern over having just one runway at both airports, leading to full closures following an incident on the runway, as has happened on several occasions in the past.

More and more airlines which want to fly to the region’s most important hub airport find themselves restrained by lack of slots during peak hours, thus limiting traffic, passenger and cargo shipment growth and delaying Nairobi’s bid to further cement its superiority in aviation statistics across the region.

The past tenure of the KAA’s Chief Executive was riddled with allegations and caused immense delays in implementing the JKIA development master plan but under the new regime these constraining circumstances seem to have been overcome and finally some movement is now visible. Current works on the airport are also ongoing at a reportedly increased pace, according to some airline sources from Nairobi, but this has in the past been seen as cycles, at times accelerating and at times slowing down again.

Watch this space for regular aviation updates from the Eastern African and Indian Ocean region.

 

 

Uganda hospitality news update – Sheraton reopens Paradise Restaurant

SHERATON RE-OPENS PARADISE RESTAURANT

The Kampala Sheraton Hotel today re-launches its new look Paradise restaurant on the garden terrace of the hotel, bringing extensive renovations and innovations to a successful conclusion.

The Paradise is a popular lunch, afternoon tea and evening dinner and entertainment spot in the city, and in particular the evening event schedule including the Happy Hours in the equally popular Equator Bar are bound to give guests of the hotel an opportunity to mingle with the locals, enjoy well known tunes and sample some of the fine buffet meals on offer 7 days a week.

Visit www.sheraton.com/kampala for more details on tariffs, facilities and special offers, always giving value for money when visiting the Pearl of Africa’s capital city. 

 

Tanzania hospitality news update – Rivertrees gets new management team

RIVERTREES INSTALLS NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM

Following the annual ‘spring cleaning’ at Rivertrees Country Inn, located on the banks of the Usa River, a new management team has taken charge under the direction of owner Martina Gehrken Trappe – yes of the famous Trappe family tree – and it is time to welcome David and Kimberly who are now attending to every need of their clients and ensure their comfortable and enjoyable stay at Rivertrees.

Martina is meanwhile devoting more time to ‘Riverblues’, which organizes weddings, events and conferences and from where proceeds too are channeled into the ‘Rivertrust Tanzania’ which supports a wide range of community projects in the Usa River neighbourhood. For more information on this exceptional country inn with lots of charm, excellent food from an all new menu – retaining the ‘old favourites though, an emerging Spa next to the poolside and an enchanted setting amidst coffee plantations and along the river banks, visit www.rivertrees.org where links to Riverblue and Rivertrust can also be found.

And for Rotarians worldwide, Rivertrees is the host venue for the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Usa River, meeting details available through the Rotary International global directory. 

 

 

Uganda hospitality breaking news – Intercontinental Hotels sign management deal with ‘Shimoni’ site owners

SHIMONI SITE TO BECOME THE ‘KAMPALA INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL’

It was confirmed overnight from impeccable sources that yesterday, 23^rd of June, was an agreement signed between the new owners and developers of the Shimoni hotel site and Intercontinental Hotel Group to manage the new 5star facility when it is ready.

The site was in 2006 handed for next to nothing to Prince Al-Waleed’s Kingdom Hotels to develop a luxury hotel and conference facility in Kampala ahead of the 2007 Commonwealth Summit, but the company failed to do much with it after displacing over 1.000 students from the Shimoni Primary School and the trainees of the Shimoni Teachers Training College, all of whom were sent away to permit for a rapid demolition of existing structures. That accomplished Kingdom Hotels turned silent on their plans, drew heavy criticism for having misled the Ugandan government and public over their abilities and intent and eventually left in shame, causing additional controversy over the disposal of the site, which eventually ended up in the hands of a Dubai based consortium.

The soon to be made announcement by Intercontinental Hotels, that they have now signed the long awaited contract to manage the ‘Shimoni hotel development’, will be good news for Uganda, as not only will the hospitality industry get another truly professional and global player into the country – besides the Sheraton Kampala and the Kampala Serena Hotel there are only homegrown stakeholders active in the city and its environs right now, often to the detriment of professional management and in particular professional training regimes – but also for the marketing of Uganda as a conference and tourism destination. Intercontinental Hotels, the nearest presently located in Nairobi / Kenya, have in the past actively supported destination marketing by tourist boards in African countries where they operate in and expanded the ‘visibility’ of a destination through their own sales activities, generating additional conference and tourism business, something Uganda presently really needs.

For now it is a warm Karibu Sana to Kampala for Intercontinental Hotels and when construction goes underway at the Shimoni site updates on progress will be published here, so watch this space.

Tanzania conservation breaking news story – Government drops ‘Serengeti Highway plans’

TANZANIA GOVERNMENT YIELDS TO PRESSURE OVER SERENGETI HIGHWAY

News received late yesterday indicate that the Tanzanian government has backed down in the face of growing global criticism and opposition to their plans to construct a highway across the Serengeti, by assuring the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris that government will seek an alternative Southern route around the Serengeti to bring road access to rural communities and leave the Serengeti park roads under the administration of TANAPA and for tourism purposes only.

It was here at eTN that in May last year the news were broken initially of plans by the Tanzanian government to construct a highway across the migration routes of the big herds of wildebeest and zebras, which subsequently developed into a global ‘anti Serengeti Highway’ movement, spearheaded by ‘SaveTheSerengeti.Org’, and supported by a Facebook campaign now having over 41.780 individual and institutional followers, besides which a petition campaign was running alongside it, which had promised to actively decampaign Tanzania as a tourism destination, should the highway plans go ahead.  

The turnabout of the Tanzanian government is notable and must be applauded, although it came late and only in the face of direct and often severe and candid criticism voiced by visiting heads of state, governmental delegations and diplomatic missions.

The full text of the letter by the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, dated 22^nd June 2011, is displayed below for reference by readers (sadly ‘eaten again by WordPress – do you even bother?)

, all of whom are however asked to remain watchful and alert, as other plans by the Tanzanian government like the Lake Natron Soda Ash Plant, plans to commercially exploit the Eastern Arc Mountains through logging and mining, the construction of a port at the Tanga Marine National Park site and to build a hydro electric power plant at Stiegler’s Gorge / Selous Game Reserve are still continuing. Meanwhile though, kudos to the Tanzanian government for their public departure from their highway plans and thanks galore to all who responded over the last 14 months to this correspondent’s breaking news story, which exposed the plans initially and whipped up a global storm of opposition – Asanteni Sana.

 

 

Kenya conservation breaking news – Burn Ivory Burn on 20th July 2011

BURN IVORY BURN

Kenya is set to burn ivory again in a show of defiance against poaching and commercial pressure to join other countries wanting to sell ivory stocks on the open market, when on 20^th of July, in a public high profile event, President Mwai Kibaki will set over 300 confiscated tusks and processed ivory on fire in Nairobi.

The ivory was confiscated nearly 10 years ago in Singapore and through DNA analysis traced back to Zambia but reportedly shipped via Kenya at the time, and with Zambia at loggerheads with the Lusaka based CITES Secretariat over their and Tanzania’s application to sell ivory stocks, Singapore reached an agreement with Kenya which ensure the destruction of the ivory.

Notably it is the Lusaka Agreement of 1994 under which African countries signed on to protect their wildlife and first reduce and then eliminate the illegal trading in wildlife and nature products.

Kenya was the first country, when then President Daniel arap Moi, together with the then Executive Director of Kenya Wildlife Service Dr. Richard Leakey burned 12 tons of ivory stocks on 19^th July 1989, shocking the world when the news broadcasts went around the globe showing the extent of poaching in Africa. Now, almost to the day 22 years later, Kenya will again set a shining example when destroying blood ivory, demand for which has risen exponentially by the greed for the ‘white gold’ by in particular Chinese buyers, turning the spotlight on the Chinese government for not nearly doing enough to stop the illegal importation of blood ivory and other prohibited wildlife products like rhino horn into China.

Conservationists have for long advocated that China strengthens domestic legislation to prevent importation, trade, processing and possession of ivory and other wildlife products, and their failure to act decisively has led to an explosion of cases in Africa where Chinese citizens were arrested at airports, sea ports and inland for illegal possession of blood ivory. At the same time was a noticeable increase in poaching registered near areas where Chinese companies have work camps and are engaged in major infrastructure projects or other economic activities like mining, setting the conservation fraternity on a collision course with the Chinese government until remedial measures are introduced and strictly enforced.

Kenya’s action is bound to give renewed impetus to the global coalition against lifting any ban on trade of ivory products and illegal wildlife and nature products and it is expected that the next CITES Congress will again deny applications by certain African countries to obtain an exemption from these rules, more likely than not also compelling them in the end to burn or otherwise destroy the ivory in order to protect endangered species in the long term.

Meanwhile it is all kudos and bouquets for Kenya and barbs for those countries seeking to evade CITES rules and regulations.