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By Chinelo Obogo
Kenya Airways is seeking to bolster its presence in Africa by ramping up its operations in Nigeria, a pivotal hub in its network.
The airline’s Chief Commercial Customer Officer, Thairu Julius, shed light on the significance of this expansion during a recent engagement in Lagos, emphasising Nigeria’s crucial role in driving prosperity across the continent.
Julius, an aviation professional with 24 years of industry experience spanning multiple continents, said Nigeria is an important market for Kenya Airways and the second biggest market after South Africa.
Reflecting on the airlines’ longstanding presence in Lagos since 1998, he reiterated its commitment to prioritising Africa and fostering intercontinental connections. He also emphasised the importance of air connectivity in spurring trade, tourism, and economic progress across the continent.
He voiced support for initiatives such as the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and said aviation is important in bridging geographical barriers and facilitating seamless interactions between African nations.
Speaking on Nigeria’s cultural and economic influence, he said Nigeria is important for Africa and the continent will never prosper or move forward if Nigeria is not prosperous. He also emphasised the need for collective African solutions to address the continent’s unique challenges.
Increased frequencies
In line with our expansion strategy, we plan on increasing our flight frequencies to Lagos, with daily flights set to rise from seven weekly frequencies to 10. Looking ahead, we are also considering the prospect of introducing additional routes, including flights to Abuja, to further bolster accessibility within Nigeria and beyond.
Currently when I look at arrival statistics to Kenya, if I just talk about tourism, Nigeria is number 16 among the key source markets for arrival for tourists in Kenya. This is a small number as last year was around 33,200, which was for me, not so good from a country of more than 200m people.
In fact, if we break that down, it is less than a 100 Nigerians a day coming to Kenya. So we are also challenging ourselves and working with other stakeholders including tourism boards and hotels, to figure out what we need to do to encourage more Nigerians to come to Kenya. And I am sure that Nigeria as a country will be doing the same to attract more people to travel between both countries.
Tourism is big in Kenya and one of our major foreign exchange earners. We have also changed our approach to focus on the big African market. Our government has been very intentional to focus on getting people in Africa, especially Nigeria to come visit our country, so, we want to play our part as an airline by enhancing connectivity and access between Nigeria and Kenya.
There is no better advertisement than having Kenya Airways aircraft landing in Nigeria. From this week, we will be flying the biggest aircraft, the B787. They have beautiful livery. It is a flight bill board advertising your country. With that background, I understand the airline industry and how it drives growth and that is why I am responsible for the commercial element and how to connect with customers.
I see Nigeria as a country that must move forward and it also represents the unique challenges we have in Africa. I believe that the solutions to those challenges must come from Africa. There is no one that will be able to figure out our issues and find out how we want to govern ourselves.
We have to create an African way. I ask why Nigerians prefer to go to Dubai and not to Kenya. I have asked myself what is it that I need to do in Kenya. The government needs to figure out if they want Nigerians to go to Kenya. Is it the attractive shopping experience? There are things we need to do and there are things that we need to do with other stakeholders to ensure that we get Nigerians to number one.
Africa must face challenges head on
Solutions must come from us, African people. There is nobody out there that can help us figure out our issues, it is up to us to figure out and to define even how to govern ourselves and not looking at what the western way or what is the eastern way. We have to create an African way.
We need more collaborative efforts with stakeholders to stimulate tourism and bolster bilateral exchanges between the two countries. We have initiatives like the Asante loyalty program which is aimed at enhancing customer experience and we also have strategic partnerships with hospitality and telecommunications entities.
Central to Kenya Airways’ vision is a customer-centric approach and we love to emphasise the importance of cultivating a service-oriented culture within the organisation. By prioritising customer satisfaction and streamlining operational efficiency, we aim to consolidate our position as a leading player in the African aviation industry.
We have core values and customer obsession is one of them. And that was deliberate for us to be a good business, to differentiate ourselves from competition, because the airline industry is very competitive. We want to really focus on the customer. We want to be really open, to understand our challenges but to also have a very clear plan on how to address these challenges.
We have done a couple of things in the last two years which have been focused on our customers. First of all, enhancing communication through mounting digital approach in order to inform customers about their travel.
We also have the Asante programwhich is both to reward, engage and understand our customers better. We are also making sure we are partnering with companies or institutions that bring more value to our customers, for example hotels. Customers can pay for their hotels through points earned from consistent patronage. Another example is that in Kenya we are even talking about partnership with telecom companies where even with your points you can buy a bundle.
SAATM
We pride ourselves as one of the big airlines in Africa that is the reason we support the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) which removes borders, trade barriers, enhances connectivity and supports the Continental Free Trade Area to promote more business among African carriers.
