Budget airline Jambojet has applied for a license from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to launch scheduled flights to 16 International routes. KCAA published details of the license application in a gazette notice dated 15th February 2019.
The new routes are all in Africa and include; Uganda (Entebbe), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Kigali (Rwanda) and Somalia (Hargeisa & Mogadishu). It plans to use Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, ATR72 and B737 aircraft and all the flights will originate from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Plans to launch flights to Somalia and Burundi in partnership with its parent company Kenya Airways fell through after the two countries refused the aircraft Jambojet planned. The company planned to use Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, which the two countries felt were inadequate.
Jambojet has been flying to Entebbe from 15th February 2018 and it was the first International route for the airline. The budget airline is fully owned by Kenya Airways and it currently flies to six destinations from JKIA i.e. Entebbe, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu, Malindi and Ukunda (Diani). It operates Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 Next Generation aircraft and has flown 2,500,000 passengers since inception.
In November 2018, Jambojet announced a new Managing Director and CEO in Allan Kilavuka, who took over from Willem Hondius from January 2019.
The full list of the new routes is below.
- Entebbe (Uganda))
- Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
- Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania)
- Zanzibar (Tanzania)
- Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
- Mwanza (Tanzania)
- Kigali (Rwanda)
- Juba (South Sudan)
- Bujumbura (Burundi)
- Hargeisa (Somalia)
- Mogadishu (Somalia)
- Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC)
- Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC)
- Moroni (Comoros)
- Lilongwe (Malawi)
- Blantyre (Malawi)