Brussels Airlines has announced it is recommencing flights from the European capital to Nairobi, Kenya, nine years after the route was discontinued.
The Belgian flag carrier had halted flights to Nairobi after its fellow Group member, Lufthansa, began flying there from Frankfurt in 2015. But data reveals Nairobi was Brussels’ third-largest unserved African market in 2019 and now, following the delivery of an Airbus 330-300, Brussels Airlines will operate six flights there per week, one more than it used to run. Those departures will be in concert with Lufthansa’s five rotations a week, giving a huge boost to intercontinental connectivity.
That connectivity is a large part of Brussels Airlines’ strategy. Nairobi takes the airline’s network in Africa to 24 airports, six in North Africa and 18 in the sub-Saharan continent, made up of historic Francophone colonial links to Belgium, as well as Anglophone ones in destinations such as Accra, Bangul, Entebbe, Monrovia, and Freetown.
Many flyers on the Nairobi route are expected to come from the US and other English-speaking countries. And within Africa, Nairobi provides a significant hub, as Media Relations Manager for Brussels Airlines, Nico Cardone, explains: “Connections are very important to Brussels Airlines. Brussels to Kenya as well, but certainly markets like Ouagadougou, or Abidjan where demand directly from Brussels alone is not big enough to fill an A330, let alone daily or several times a week. So connections are really vital. And then depending on the markets, it depends on what destination is the most important for feeder traffic. Kenya is an English speaking country. So it is obvious that United Kingdom and United States and Canada are very important feeder markets as well.”
Showing the strength of the market, 50,000 flyers have already booked onto Nairobi flights, since tickets went on sale in June 2024. As well as serving the diaspora, the inbound leisure and tourism segment is important in Kenya, not to mention untapped freight demand bringing the country’s fresh produce to Europe.
Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib, hailed the route as “the direct result of advances in cooperation. We are increasingly working together in sectors like technology and environments and tourism. It is also shows very concretely how fruitful bilateral relations can have a direct impact on our economies and the prosperity of our populations. This connection will undoubtedly strengthen our economic partnership from Belgium. Nairobi is a gateway to the vibrant and diverse continent of Africa. We consider Kenya to be a strategic partner regionally and internationally tied to its history and its economic power.”
