On Thursday, 11^th of January 2017, Kenya’s National Carrier, Kenya Airways marked a great milestone in the history of the airline with the launch of a non-stop flight from Nairobi to New York. With effect from today, the national carrier will start selling tickets for the inaugural flight, which is scheduled for October 28th this year. This makes Kenya Airways the first airline to offer a non-stop flight between East Africa and the United States of America.

“This is an exciting moment for us. It fits within our strategy to attract corporate and high-end tourism traffic from the world to Kenya and Africa. We are honoured to contribute to the economic growth of Kenya and East Africa,” said Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and CEO Sebastian Mikosz.

Kenya Airways already serves Africa, Europe, Middle-East, Indian sub-continent and Asia. The opening of the US destination completes an essential piece for Kenya Airways’ network, cementing its position as one of the leading African carriers.

With over 40 American multinationals located in Nairobi and many more across Africa, the launch of daily flights is expected to further spur trade between America and Africa.

Kenya Airways will offer its customers a unique travel experience between two great gateways. It will be the fastest connection from East Africa to New York, with 15 hours duration eastbound and 14 hours westbound. The ultra-long-haul flight, unique to Kenya Airways network, will require 4 Pilots and 12 Flight attendants as well as 85 tons of fuel each way, making it an exceptional operation.

The airline will operate its state of the art Boeing 787 Dreamliner with a capacity of 234 passengers. The flight will depart every day from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport hub in Nairobi at 23:25 arriving at JFK airport in New York at 06:25 the following day. From New-York it will depart at 12:25 landing at JKIA at 10:55 the following day. Its duration will be 15 hours eastbound and 14 hours westbound.

This convenient schedule will allow connections to and from over 40 African destinations through Kenya Airways hub in Nairobi.

What you should know about Kenya Airways

• Kenya Airways a member of the Sky Team Alliance, is a leading African airline flying to 51 destinations worldwide, 42 of which are in Africa and carries over three million passengers annually.
•  It continues to modernize its fleet with its 32 aircrafts being some of the youngest in Africa. This includes its flagship B787 Dreamliner aircrafts.
• The onboard service is renowned and the lie-flat business class seat on the wide-body aircraft is consistently voted among the world’s top 10.
• Kenya Airways takes pride in being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the World and the World to Africa through its hub at the new ultra-modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
• Kenya Airways celebrated 40 years of operations in January 2017 and was named Africa Leading Airline 2017 by the World Travel Awards.