Kenya Airways plans Australia-Nairobi flights: new route to Africa

Flights from Nairobi to Australia are on the cards for Kenya Airways, which has plans to challenge the Qantas-South African Airways duopoly within five years.

Kenya Airways is looking to use its Boeing 787 Dreamliners to bulk out its services, while Australia flights are planned by 2017.

The airline is planning a major expansion, with Australia flights part of a wider Asia-Pacific expansion, airline industry specialist publication ATW reports.

Business travellers would welcome the competition on Africa flights -- and the opportunity to connect somewhere other than Johannesburg -- on the Australia-Africa routes.

Currently, Qantas and South African Airways have a duopoly on Australia-Africa flights, although competition regulators are gunning to remove the airlines' ability to cooperate via their current codeshare agreement -- meaning that you might see service reductions from Qantas and SAA as a result.

Kenya Airways is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, which is relatively under-represented in Australia. An additional service -- and, at the end of the day, another option for the Kangaroo route to Europe -- can only benefit business travellers.

Curious about how the Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes routes like this possible? Check out more of Australian Business Traveller's extensive 787 coverage!

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.