Kenya tourism breaking news – First edition of the Kenya Tourism Awards honours Porini / Cheli & Peacock

KENYA TOURISM AWARDS HONOUR PORINI / GAMEWATCHERS

The first ever Kenya Tourism Awards, held yesterday at the Simba Saloon, Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi in the presence of the UNWTO Secretary General Dr. Taleb Rifai and Kenya’s Minister for Tourism, the Hon. Najib Balala, saw the former Kenya Tourism Federation Chairman and Immediate Past Chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board Jake Grieves-Cook honoured as ‘Best Safari Operator’ in Kenya, yet another award and glowing accolade for Porini and Gamewatchers and very well deserved indeed.

Porini operate four award winning tented safari camps on their own or other conservancies, one just outside Amboseli National Park, one on Ol Pejeta and two camps just outside the Masai Mara Game Reserve, all in the past visited by this correspondent and indeed as highly recommended as they come. Gamewatchers operate the actual safari tours, all by 4×4 custom-build vehicles and the two companies together make a formidable force on the Kenyan tourism scene.

Other award winner in this inaugural event, now due to be held annually, were such illustrious names as Elsa’ Kopje operated by Cheli and Peacock as ‘Best Safari Lodge’ or the Express Travel Group as ‘Best Travel Agency and Travel Management Company’.

In an added category Cheli and Peacock also scooped the ‘Community Integration Award’ received by a beaming Liz Cheli on behalf of the company while a Nation Media Group writer was recognized as ‘Best Tourism Writer / Print Media’ – well done all round, especially to my friends at Porini / Gamewatchers and Cheli & Peacock. 

 

Tanzania aviation news update – ATCL, not another ‘revival’

ANOTHER REVIVAL FOR ATCL

‘NOT AGAIN’ was the tenor of aviation observers in Tanzania, when news emerged from the parliamentary session in Dodoma, that government was once more pumping money into the airline to pay for the maintenance of one of  ATC’s two planes, currently in South Africa for a complete overhaul.

The erstwhile national airline of Tanzania has not flown since February this year, and until then with a single plane only, their second aircraft also down with technical faults and due for major scheduled maintenance too, and more and more people in authority are beginning to question government’s wisdom about wanting to revive what quintessentially is now a totally failed public venture. Air Tanzania Corporation Limited is also in court with a number of debtors, having failed to clear debts several years old already for tickets sold but never used when operations were suspended between Tanzania and South Africa, had their AOC suspended  in the past over ‘documentary issues’, whatever that can be interpreted for and are suspended from IATA.

While it is correct that the management of the company bears the responsibility for the steep decline, government too must accept blame for having let down the airline when failing to inject the funds required years ago to really have the airline take off again.

However all this being in the past, attempts now to revive the airline in the face of stiff private sector competition by the likes of Precision Air, Fly 540 Tanzania and others, is a next to impossible thing. The brightest aviation brains now work in the private sector where they are compensated according to their skills and abilities, and government will ever only attract the proverbial civil servants’ minds, generally unable to compete with the wizards of the skies which have shaped Precision Air into what that airline has become today, a quasi national airline, doing Tanzania proud and flying the flag to a growing number of domestic, regional and international destinations.

Meanwhile though have opposition parliamentarians also warned that they will oppose the waste of government funds while those responsible for wrecking the airline are going scot free.

Watch this space, as the ATCL saga seemingly becomes the ‘never ending story’.

 

 

Mauritius aviation news – Government to allow greater air access?

MAURITIUS TO LOOSEN STRINGS FOR NEW FLIGHTS

Clearly stung by the success of the Seychelles, where conscientious policy decisions have in recent years led to global success in making the holiday destination ‘visible’ through reorganizing its tourist board,  rebranding the entire destination into ‘Brand Seychelles’ and working hand in hand with global airline giants, has Mauritius finally shown signs of waking up to the new market realities. Their previous ‘big brother status’ amongst the Indian Ocean islands, aka Vanilla Islands, has in the recent past come under siege and the fall out of the global financial and economic crisis of 2007/8 seems to have been lingering longer on Mauritius than would have ordinarily been expected.

Seemingly driven to a large degree by the country’s hospitality industry, which is grappling with continued less than expected occupancy levels, has the government in Port Louis finally agreed to look into their hitherto restrictive aviation policies with the aim of permitting more flights during periods when demand reaches peak levels so that seats on aircraft finally start to match the grown bed capacity from new resorts which have sprung up across the island’s beaches.

However, airlines will consider this only as a starting point, aiming at year round greater access to the island and as it suits them even fifth freedom rights to fly via Mauritius on to key destinations on the African continent. The government in Mauritius, a majority shareholder in Air Mauritius, has always been fiercely protective of ‘their own’, but as the airline is only now starting to re-enter the profit zone after major losses in past financial years, aviation strategists are keenly watching how ‘the owners’, i.e. government will react to the emerging demands by the hospitality private sector for greater access by other airlines vis a vis their otherwise ‘protective mode’ towards their national airline.

Watch this space. 

 

 

Uganda aviation news update – CAA responds to airline complaints, but did they really?

CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY RESPONDS TO AIRLINE COMPLAINTS

Complaints voiced during the week by international and local air operators, coming together under the platform of the ‘air operators committee’, about standards and services rendered by the Civil Aviation Authority in regard of the running of Entebbe International Airport have brought about a swift reaction by the CAA, in part answering issues raised but in part also sidestepping areas of concern.

In a statement given by the CAA’s Chief Executive Dr. Rama Makuza, it was pointed out that the authority has long standing plans to begin the implementation of and additional work on its infrastructure master plan, based on which the expansion, modernization and selective refurbishments at the international airport are to be carried out. Such work, it was mentioned, will stretch over a period of 5 years, during which major improvements and expansion will be accomplished, which will include moving the present cargo section next to the passenger terminal to a new location along the airport’s second taxiway and runway, with sufficient space for several cargo aircraft to be handled at once, tripling the present capacity.

With the expected development of maintenance facilities links to such new ventures too will be created with an expansion of new taxiways, which will also benefit the United Nations African Logistics Base located at and beyond the ‘old airport’ for ease of access.

This will then also facilitate the doubling of the present passenger terminal space, where literally all of the vacated office spaces, availed when the Civil Aviation Authority some years ago moved to their own headquarters at the airport’s perimeter, have since been taken up, allowing for more check in space, now getting crowded during peak departure hours.

It is understood that the air operators remain in close contact with officials of the Civil Aviation Authority and the management of the international airport to also determine better ways of access for passengers, in particular when it rains, to the main terminal, where vehicles still cannot drop off passengers unlike at the airports in Nairobi and Kigali. This inconveniences passengers greatly, leads to often lengthy queues and almighty rushes to get to the terminal in time for a flight, but it is understood that ‘security concerns’ are responsible for this arrangement while at the same time trolleys, porters and cover against rain during peak arrival and departure times are simply insufficient.

Another area of concern and constant complaints are the regular failures of the airport parking payment systems, which no longer accept notes but only 500 Shilling coins, and in particular at night, when vehicles wish to exit and insert their tickets, then finding they have no change in coins, the machines retain the tickets as the transaction cannot be aborted, leaving at times all 6 of the payment automats blocked for use resulting in extortionist surcharges at the exit gate. Again, the CAA has not managed to compel the concessionaire at this time to ‘fix this’, leading to further frustrations by airport users.

All in all, the CAA has their work cut out, especially considering that Kigali is about to embark on the construction of an entirely new airport further outside the capital while Nairobi is accelerating their construction speed to facilitate both new international airlines to fly to Nairobi as well as enable their national airline Kenya Airways to have room for their own expansion and to allow their vision to become Africa’s number one airline in coming years to become reality.

Watch this space.

 

 

Kenya aviation breaking news – Ouagadougou ‘Here we come’

OUAGADOUGOU HERE WE COME

The expansion drive across the African continent by Kenya Airways, aka ‘The Pride of Africa’ continues unabated, as Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso has just been announced as the 55^th destination, due to join the network by mid July. The initially twice weekly flights will route from the airline’s Nairobi hub via Cotonou, Benin and a B737-800 will be used for the comfort of passengers.

Kenya Airways intends to commence flight operations to a further 6 destinations during their current financial year, some of them known to this correspondent but on request of a senior source within the airline still withheld to keep their competition guessing for a while longer. KQ only recently signed an aircraft purchase deal with Embraer for another 10 firm orders of the E190AR and options for 10 more Embraer jets, type still to be determined but expected to be a mix between the E170’s and E190’s. Kenya Airways presently already operates 7 of those sleek ‘birds’ and a further 3 E190’s are due for delivery in coming months before the next 10 on firm order will begin to join the fleet in 2012 over a 2 year period. \

The fleet of KQ now stands at 32 all jet aircraft with a further 19, including 9 B787’s on firm order and another 14 options, of which 4 are again for the B787, which in coming years will form the backbone of the airline’s long haul flights.

Kenya Airways is committed to connect all of Africa’s capitals and/or commercial hubs by 2013, aiming to capture the growing traffic within Africa, and connecting with KQ in Nairobi to destinations into the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and to Asia and the Far East.

Related to this is the sudden renewed urgency and speed of the Kenya Airport Authority to expand the East African region’s premier aviation hug, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, with the construction of more aircraft parking spaces, a new terminal building and a new runway, to give ‘The Pride of Africa’ the operational advantages they need to grow and expand as envisaged by the company.

Watch this space for the most up to date news from the Eastern African and Indian Ocean aviation scenes and follow on Twitter via @whthome for instant notification of news releases.