- From Nairobi, Air France-KLM will serve Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Djibouti, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana markets.
- Kenya has lengthy been acknowledged as the first enterprise centre of East Africa – Air France-KLM’s Marius van der Ham.
- Kenya is major enterprise centre of East Africa, boasting a secure and dynamic enterprise setting. The nation presents world-class expertise, and glorious connectivity throughout Africa.
A streamlined group by way of product providing, nice customer support, world-class expertise and airport expertise noticed Air France-KLM decide Nairobi as its new Africa headquarters.
The transfer is a part of the airline’s strategic plans to bolster its community and improve companies throughout Africa. From Nairobi, Air France-KLM will serve eight markets, together with Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Djibouti, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana.
Air France-KLM’s regional supervisor for East and Southern Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria Marius van der Ham stated: “We consider there may be extra potential to be grabbed, particularly right here in Kenya.”
In accordance with Marius, Africa is at the moment the fifth-largest area in Air France KLM’s community of 12 regional operations. The continent is trailing the airline’s North America, Higher China, Korea, and Japan markets.
Customer support and airport expertise
“It made sense to bundle the power of the totally different international locations by making a regional workplace in Nairobi which has turn into a centre of excellence to align our Air France-KLM insurance policies and processes for this area and assist the native groups for his or her particular necessities. For our clients, the brand new workplace has the advantage of a streamlined group by way of product providing, customer support and airport expertise,” Senior Vice President of Lengthy-Haul at Air France-KLM Zoran Jelkic stated.
The Nairobi workplace is on Service provider Sq., Riverside Drive, and can serve East and Southern Africa, and Nigeria markets. Marius van der Ham, who’s the Group’s Common Supervisor (GM), will head Nairobi hub.
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“This transfer is a testomony to the Group’s unwavering dedication to the area and its drive to ship unparalleled companies. Kenya has lengthy been acknowledged as the first enterprise centre of East Africa, boasting a secure and dynamic enterprise setting, glorious connectivity throughout the continent, and a wealth of expertise to assist our technique.”
Vacationers will entry quite a lot of companies from the brand new workplace, together with ticketing, gross sales, and customer support. Moreover, clients can get hold of particulars concerning the group’s items and companies, such because the Flying Blue reward program. Prospects will even faucet into advantages of Air France-KLM alliances with different airways.
Rising demand for air journey in Africa
Moreover, it’s going to assist Air France-KLM higher meet the area’s rising demand for aviation journey. Presently, the service presents flights to quite a few cities in East Africa, together with Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
“Africa is a area with ample assets, expertise, and potential, and we’re excited to be a part of its progress story. Due to this fact, we see this new workplace as a vital step in the direction of firming our footprint on this area. It’s a key precedence inside our community. For a begin, we’ve got expanded in East Africa by growing our frequency, and secondly by opening Dar es Salaam for Air France together with Zanzibar. That is along with our already established community of KLM flights into Uganda and Rwanda,” stated Marius van der Ham.
Nairobi will hyperlink the area to the remainder of the world via the Group’s hubs in Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is going to assist give customers extra choices and suppleness for his or her international journey preferences.
“The opening of the Africa Regional Headquarters signify the boldness that the airline has in Kenya and the good future that lies forward for our aviation sector,” stated Transport Cupboard Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen.
As a Ministry, we are going to proceed to supply airways with the mandatory infrastructure, coverage framework, incentives and a conducive enterprise setting to function seamlessly and profitably, added Murkomen.
Air France-KLM Nairobi-Europe flights frequency
Rising demand for air journey has seen Air France-KLM enhance its capability on Nairobi-Europe flights by 14% in 2023. Earlier than the pandemic, Air France-KLM operated one day by day journey to Amsterdam and 5 weekly flights to Paris. Presently, the airline operates two day by day flights from Nairobi to Amsterdam and Paris.
Though there are various prospects for enlargement within the African tourism trade, aviation sector is dealing with some difficulties. Some airline executives have named a scarcity of US {dollars} in a number of economies as one of many principal challenges. The lack of airways to repatriate their earnings is negatively impacting on their monetary operations.
In March, Emirates Airline, a Gulf airline, stated “substantial” portion of its ticket gross sales income was caught in Nigeria. Emirates stated efforts to repatriate cash from the continent’s largest financial system had been transferring slowly.
Air France-KLM is committing to sustainable air transportation via using Sustainable Aviation Gasoline. The service seeks to chop down on carbon emission by 30% by 2030 and hit Web Zero by 2050. Dutch service KLM has 54 years of air operation in Kenya whereas Air France has 5.
