China Southern Airlines has given Chinese citizens looking to travel to Nairobi a major advantage after it launched two-time weekly direct flights between Nairobi and Changsha, the capital city of central China’s Hunan Province. The flights are meant to boost business and tourism between the two countries.
According to the airline, in the first month of the route launch, the cheapest ticket from Nairobi to Changsha we will go for around Sh51, 485 while a return ticket between the two destinations will go at Sh69, 616.
Prior to this direct flight, the airline only offered two weekly flights linking travelers between Guangzhou City, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The new flights will occur twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. This will substitute the current flights between Nairobi and Guangzhou, which is on Monday and Friday.
According to Judith Nashipai Kamai, an official at the China Southern Airlines in Nairobi, the airline will now have four weekly non-stop flights between China and Kenya and this will help to boost business and tourism links between the two countries.
China has been Africa’s single largest trading partner for 10 years in a row, with the bilateral trade value peaking at Sh20.4 trillion in 2018. The world’s second-largest economy’s latest air route comes at a period when it is seeking to expand its base in East Africa in the wake of heightened competition from other players for the EA
market.