CNN International journalist Larry Madowo expressed his concern about the rising travel expenses, particularly airfares. The seasoned journalist spent Sh. 200,000 on a one-hour flight from Uganda’s Entebbe Airport to Nairobi’s JKIA.
“Hard to believe but Kenya Airways charged me $1,268 for a Nairobi-Entebbe return ticket in cattle class,” he wrote.
A spot check by Bizna Kenya revealed that a round-trip on the same Kenya Airways nonstop flight typically costs around Sh. 65,000 on average, with a duration of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
“There’s no reason why a 1-hour flight should cost Sh. 200,000 even if it was last minute like mine! Je huu ni ungwana?”
The journalist decided to cancel the economy class ticket and opted for a business class ticket that was $218 cheaper.
“How is that even possible? Ningepanda basi?”
Stakeholders have pointed out that the escalating travel costs within Africa are a barrier to local tourism.
They noted the contrast, a 3-hour direct flight from Berlin to Istanbul costs $150, while covering a similar distance from Entebbe in Uganda to the port of Mombasa demands $200.
“It is often cheaper to fly to another continent than to another African country,” they said as the meeting drew to a close.
In response to Larry’s amusing air ticket anecdote, Kenyans flooded his comment section with humorous remarks. Here are some of the selected comments:
Larry Madowo shines again at CNN, lands new top role
Felix Mukalla: Did you just say, Cattle Class? Hapo umechoma bro.
Stycie Waweru: I have realized if you purchase a “walk-up” fare (airline-speak for same-day purchase), the airline assumes that you absolutely MUST be on that day’s flight and will charge you more than if you made an advance booking some weeks earlier. We suffered the same fate last week with Turkish Airlines for NBO-Los Angeles (LAX) return. But then again, 1268$ return for NBO – EBB is daylight robbery
Victoria Nyanduko: Cattle class means the cheapest class of seats on any aircraft. Class dismissed
Gee Gee: You should have taken Emirates, go all the way to Dubai then back to entebbe. That way you will appreciate the value of time.