New Accra-Dakar KQ service provides initial lift to SAATM |

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After announcing a service linking Nairobi to Dubai via Mombasa – and in a sign that African skies are finally starting to open up – flag carrier Kenya Airways says it is introducing a service that will link Nairobi to Dakar (Senegal) via Accra, starting December 11. Kenya and Ghana are among the fifteen African states that signed a pact on November 14 to open up air transport between themselves under the SAATM Pilot Implementation Project. New Accra-Dakar KQ service provides initial lift to SAATM.

The flights that complement the existing twice-weekly service to Dakar will be available two times a week, expanding the options between Nairobi and to Dakar four a week and nine between Nairobi and Accra. It will be operated using a Boeing 737-800. The flights will originate in Nairobi on Tuesdays and Sundays, making a stop in Accra, where Senegal-bound passengers will join for the leg to Dakar. The rotation in the opposite direction on Mondays and Wednesdays will also make an intermediate stop in Accra, before embarking on the final leg to Nairobi. Kenya Airways is targeting the “demand from corporate travelers, traders as well as leisure travelers between Ghana and Senegal.”

“This new connection will offer customers within the Kenya Airways network more flight options and choices within West Africa and in and out of East Africa as well as provide seamless connections through Nairobi to the Middle East, India, China, Europe, and the USA. The route connection will increase Dakar flight options from the current two weekly flights to four times weekly and Accra from daily flights to nine times a week with a night flight out of Nairobi to Accra,” the carrier said in a statement.

Kenya Airways Chief Commercial and Customer Officer Julius Thairu adds that the new connection “will offer our guests more travel and connectivity options within West Africa. Strategically, the bigger picture is to support the Single African Air Transport Market and the African Continental Free Trade Area, which are key pillars for Africa’s growth, by growing and deepening our network connections within the continent.”