Fastjet Kenya (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) has had its application to the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) for an Air Services Licence (ASL) deferred until next year following objections from local operators.
The start-up, a joint-venture between Fastjet (Dar es Salaam) and an undisclosed Kenyan national, had applied to offer passenger and freight services using A319-100, CRJ200, and CRJ100 aircraft. In terms of its network, it had applied for domestic traffic rights for Eldoret, Kisumu, Wajir, and Mombasa and for international traffic rights to Entebbe, Harare International, Kilimanjaro, Juba, Lilongwe, Lusaka, and Zanzibar.
However, Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), Fly SAX (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), and other local operators all lodged objections to the start-up's licensing.
“We have received complaints from the likes of Kenya Airways and African Safaris and other airlines about some aspects of Fastjet’s operation,” KCAA acting director-general Joseph Kiptoo told the Business Daily. “We have already forwarded these complaints to Fastjet and we are awaiting their response. Once they respond, we will grant them another licence application hearing.”
Though Kiptoo did not elaborate as to what the objections were, it is believed the Kenyan government is unhappy with the introduction of perceived foreign-backed budget carrier which would threaten the likes of Kenya Airways' nascent budget subsidiary, Jambojet (JM, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), which Nairobi, as a Kenya Airways shareholder, is keen to protect.
The London-listed Tanzanian LCC, fastjet, had planned to roll out a Kenyan subsidiary within a year of its launch in 2012 only for a financial dispute to sour its relationship with then partner, Fly540 (FFV, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta). It then sought a partnership with the now defunct JetLink Express (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) before that too resulted in a dead-end.
