Kenya’s Jambojet to open Mombasa base in 3Q22, grow cargo

Jambojet (JM, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) will open a secondary hub in Mombasa in the third quarter of 2022 in an effort to grow its domestic and regional network, according to Managing Director Karanja Ndegwa.

The Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) subsidiary currently operates out of its main hub at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, but has been seeking Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) approval since last year to open up other bases in regional cities, including Mombasa and Kisumu, he said in an interview with Kenya’s Business Daily. In 2020, it was granted various domestic and regional traffic rights for its proposed Mombasa operations.

Jambojet already holds about 23% market share at Mombasa in terms of weekly airline seat capacity, second after the 33% of parent Kenya Airways, ch-aviation capacities data reveals. Top routes (by weekly capacity) from Mombasa it may want to explore, include Nairobi, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kigali (Rwanda), Mumbai Int’l (India), Zanzibar (Tanzania), and Entebbe/Kampala (Uganda).

Other carriers with crew bases at Mombasa include Blue Sky Aviation Services (Kenya) (SBK, Mombasa) and Mombasa Air Safari (RRV, Mombasa).

Meanwhile, the budget carrier will debut cargo operations in early February, after having received the required regulatory approval from the KCAA to fly goods on its passenger flights on both domestic and regional routes, using DHC-8-Q400s, Ndegwa said. The carrier has six of the type in the fleet, ch-aviation fleets advanced data shows.

Cargo routes to be served include Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret, and Malindi in Kenya.

“Jambojet has received regulatory approvals from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to start ferrying cargo across local and regional markets where we operate and we are set to start next month,” he confirmed.