Jambojet, Kenya Airways’ in-house, low-cost carrier, is set to launch their new offices at Diani Beach with much fanfare it seems, as CEO Willem Hondius himself is flying in from Nairobi to officiate at the function.
Jambojet offers presently the only scheduled connection from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to the Ukunda airfield which serves the resorts along the award-winning Diani beaches.
After a somewhat rocky start of their Ukunda flights, marked by inept handling of delayed passengers, the service has now settled down, and residents who live along Diani and beyond, and travelers willing to make it all the way to JKIA rather than using the daily connections from Wilson Airport, have started to accept the flights which are operated by a Bombardier Q400NextGen aircraft with a single-class configuration of 75 seats.
The opening of a booking office at Diani will no doubt go a long way to further penetrate the market, even though most travelers with Jambojet appear to make their bookings on the net via smart phones, tablets, or laptops. As is the case with LCCs, it is the early bird bookings which guarantee the lowest advertised fares, and the closer to departure one books, the higher the fare will be.
The new sales office is located at the Costa Sur Complex and will be open during regular office hours on a daily basis.
The Ukunda airfield is due for some major expansion work over the coming years and the lengthening of the runway will commence once a nearby school has been relocated to new premises, presently being constructed by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, to make way for safe operations for larger aircraft which can then use the airfield.
