Kenya Airways (KQ) will on Monday re-introduce passenger flights on the Nairobi-Eldoret route after a 10-year break, fueling competition on the route that is also served by carriers such as Skyward Express.   

The carrier that stopped operating on the Nairobi-Eldoret route in 2014 said flights to the destination will operate five times per week giving customers another option to fly to the destination.

The carrier will charge passengers an introductory fare of Sh8,505 for a one-way ticket.

"Kenya Airways will relaunch its flight services to and from Eldoret starting March 25th, 2024. Service to Eldoret will resume five days a week, with flights operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays," said Kenya Airways Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka in a statement on Wednesday. 

The re-introduction of flights by the airline on the route is part of the bigger plan by the carrier to expand its wings across its network post Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. 

This will see it rake in more revenues as demands for air travel continue to pick up ahead of the Easter season. 

The airline has been on an aggressive expansion drive opening new routes in the last few months such as the Nairobi-Bangkok flights as it continues to look into new opportunities to tap into the global travel business.

The airline reported its biggest half-year loss for the period ended June last year, weighed down by heavy forex losses and a pile-up of debt that have upset its turnaround plan. 

Despite a 56 percent growth in revenues to Sh75 billion, a 43 percent jump in passenger numbers to 2.3 million and its first operating profit in six years, higher costs pushed the airline deeper into the red after it more than doubled its losses to Sh21.7 billion in the six months to June 2023.

The loss is a 120 percent increase from the Sh9.9 billion loss the airline reported during the first half of 2022 and is more than the Sh15 billion full-year loss for 2021.

KQ attributed the performance to finance costs soaring to Sh22.8 billion, a 360 percent increase from Sh4.9 billion during the first half of 2022.

Forex losses consumed Sh15.3 billion of the total finance costs, driven by the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar.