Kenya Airways (KQ) has come out to speak after reports that some of its flights to Somalia have been diverting back to Nairobi after failing to land at Mogadishu airport. The national carrier has blamed bad weather as the primary reason why the affected flights have had to return to Nairobi.

“Kenya Airways confirms that since May 24, 2024, due to adverse weather activities over Somalia, a few of our flights into Mogadishu have experienced stronger-than-usual tailwinds that have made it impossible to safely land the aircraft,” the national carrier said.

As a safety precaution, Kenya Airways said that its crew have been opting to divert back to Nairobi, following strict safety protocols and always ensuring the comfort and safety of the passengers.

“Our crew did not opt to use the alternative runway approach overflying the city until the Airport authorities in Mogadishu mitigated the security and safety concerns. We can confirm that the airport authorities in Mogadishu have since addressed this, and we will be able to land the aircraft safely,” said Kenya Airways in a statement.

“We deeply understand and regret the inconvenience these circumstances beyond our control have caused our esteemed customers. We are proactively communicating with the impacted customers. We are diligently and proactively monitoring the weather situation in Mogadishu to ensure our customers and crew’s safety and comfort.”

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Kenyans monitoring flights on online platforms noted that on May 30, Kenya Airways flight KQ362 to Somalia that was being serviced by an Embraer aircraft was to touch down at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport at around 15:15. This landing was canceled.

On June 1, another flight left Nairobi for Mogadishu after a delay of about one hour. Upon reaching Mogadishu, it remained in a holding pattern in the air for about 35 minutes before it returned to Nairobi without making a landing. On June 2, yet another flight left for Somalia but never landed and was instead diverted back to Nairobi.

These aborted cancellations have now been attributed to Kenya Airways more preferred safety approach that avoids flying over the Mogadishu city when executing a landing maneuver.

Somalia allowed the resumption of flights to Mogadishu by Kenya Airways in July 2022 based on the existing Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA).