The newly launched Doha to Mombasa Qatar Airways flight has not gotten as much attention as the one given to the Kenya Airways to New York flight that garnered so much public interest.
In fact if anything, the President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs were all missing in action when the Qatar Airways flight touched down in Mombasa for the first time.
So is the Doha to Mombasa direct flight not that much of a big deal?
Let’s take a look at the differences/similarities between the Qatar Airways direct flight to Mombasa and the Kenya Airways to New York flight.
The Kenya Airways direct flight from Nairobi to New York was launched on Sunday, October 28, 2018 while the Qatar Airways direct flight was launched today Sunday, December 9, 2018. The KQ flight left Nairobi for New York but the Qatar Airways flight was flagged off in Doha.
In terms of duration, the KQ to New York route is a 15-hour long flight while the Qatar Airways Doha to Mombasa has a flight time of just over six hours.
The Doha to Mombasa flights will be operated with an Airbus A320 while the KQ to New York flight deployed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The Airbus A320 has a capacity of carrying 150 passengers with 12 business class and 120 economy class seats. On the other hand, the KQ Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft has the capacity of 234 passengers; 204 in Economy and 30 in Business Class.
For the KQ to New York flight, passengers travelling to the US will depart from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 10:55 and arrive at the John F. Kennedy airport at 6.30 am while the return flight from JKF will depart at 1.30 p.m. and arrive in Nairobi at 10.30 am the following day.
For Qatar Airways, passengers will depart from the Hamad International Airport in Doha at 02:30 am and arrive at the Moi International Airport Mombasa at 8:40 am while the return flight will leave Mombasa at 4:30 pm and arrive in Doha at 10:30 pm.
The KQ airline is charging an introductory offer of Ksh. 73,230 for a return ticket between Nairobi and New York for passengers travelling on Economy class on October 28 while the Doha to Mombasa ticket is estimated to be about Ksh. 67,000 thereabout.
Although Kenya Airways is currently doing daily flights from Nairobi to the US, the airline said that as of January 15 2019, they will only fly direct to the United States on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week.
The Qatar Airways direct flight from Doha to Mombasa will now be doing a four-times weekly flight on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.
Both airlines, Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways received the water canon salute when they touched down in Mombasa and New York respectively.
The water canon salute is a touching airport tradition to honour military veterans, foreign dignitaries and a new airline service. It involves two fire-fighting rigs spraying arcs of water over an arriving or departing flight as a sign of respect, honour and gratitude.
Can you think of any more similarities or differences between the two inaugural flights witnessed this year?