Kenya, India ink emergency flights deal
Passengers arriving at JKIA, Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- The arrangement means both countries have agreed to allow each other's aircraft to land even when airspaces are closed.
- With India on lockdown since March, the airspace has been shut and only repatriation flights have been allowed
India has approved Kenya's request for special landing rights for emergency aircraft during the Covid-19 pandemic season.
The arrangement announced on Wednesday means both countries have agreed to allow each other's aircraft to land even when their respective airspaces are closed.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday that the Asian country has signed similar bilateral arrangements with 15 other countries to specifically allow flights in and out of their territories, in a quid-pro-quo understanding.
"In order to further boost bilateral international air connectivity, Air Bubble arrangements are now in place with Kenya and Bhutan. Indian carriers will be able to operate to these countries. Carriers of these countries will be able to fly to India," Mr Puri said on Twitter.
The countries include Kenya, Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
This comes a month after Kenya’s High Commissioner to India, Willy Bett, revealed that he had proposed special unrestricted flights especially those bringing in emergency cases.
With India on lockdown since March, the airspace has been closed and only repatriation flights have been allowed in under special circumstances.
India is still under lockdown with local virus cases rising by an average of 70,000 a day.
The Kenyan diplomat had told the Nation that Kenya has been negotiating with Indian authorities, especially those in charge of aviation regulation, for a special passage.
“We have been negotiating so that Kenya Airways is allowed at least two special flights to and from India every end month,” said Mr Bett in an earlier interview with the Nation, during which he argued the idea was to keep the window for affordable health care open for Kenyans especially now that the Kenyan system is getting stretched by Covid-19.
“I see a travel bubble arrangement as a long-term solution that will bring consistency and enable those seeking medical care to plan as a schedule will be in place.”
Kenya Airways has already airlifted about 2,000 Kenyans stranded in India under a special permission from New Delhi.
"I have waited so long for this moment," says Mr Peter Kimani , a Kenyan engineer living and working in Maharashtra, Mumbai ."
