Kenya Airways (KQ) has sold off its prime landing slot at London’s Heathrow airport to Oman Air for an estimated Sh7.5 billion.
The decision to sell off the landing slot at one of the world’s prime airports has attracted criticism, with market and aviation analysts fearing that KQ will lose its attractiveness to passengers at the airport. The sale deal will now take effect on March 27 this year.
KQ’s sale of its coveted 5.30 a.m. arrival slot is the highest priced deal to have taken place at Heathrow, beating the previous Sh6 billion ($60 million) record payment that American Airlines made to Scandinavian carrier SAS a year ago.
Reports indicating that KQ pocketed only Sh3 billion of the total Sh7.5 billion earned from the sale of the prime morning landing slot has raised questions as to how the national carrier shared the sale proceeds with its partners AF-KLM.