Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways (VS) will, with effect from September 24, end its London Heathrow - Nairobi flights sighting low passenger numbers and higher overheads amongst other factors. No doubt, this will come as relief to Kenya Airways who in January 2012 issued a profit warning for the First Quarter of 2012.
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| Virgin Atlantic's B747-400 |
“During the past five years a combination of record fuel prices, higher and higher taxes imposed by the UK Government and a poorly timed slot not providing connections from London, have made it uneconomical to fly from Nairobi,” said Sir Branson in statement from London.
Read More Here [Business Daily Kenya]“For the past five years our team in Nairobi have worked incredibly hard and we hope to return should the economic situation change.”
This comes at a time when various European carriers are axing various African routes citing route viability problems: of recent note Iberia (Johannesburg), TAP (Johannesburg).
Virgin Atlantic has stated, however, that it will maintain its other African routes to Accra, Lagos and Johannesburg.
