Fastjet Kenya (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) has secured its Air Services Licence (ASL) almost a year after the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) last year deferred the start-up's hearing citing resistance from local operators.
The ASL will now allow the Fastjet (Dar es Salaam) subsidiary to proceed with its application for an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) following which it will be allowed to operate domestic flights within Kenya.
“Following recently announced progress towards the Fastjet Zambia (Lusaka) AOC and the receipt of our Fastjet Zimbabwe (FN, Harare International) AOC last week, today’s announcement signals a very substantial acceleration in the development of the fastjet network and our future growth plans," CEO Ed Winter commented.
A 51/49 partnership between an undisclosed Kenyan national and the London-listed fastjet plc, Fastjet Kenya has encountered stiff resistance from local operators such as Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), African Express Airways (AXK, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) and Fly SAX (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) which collectively managed to block the nascent LCC's original application for an ASL a year ago.
In any case, the good news adds to that of last week wherein fastjet announced it had inked an interline agreement - its first - with Emirates (EK, Dubai International). Under the deal, Emirates passengers will be able to book fastjet tickets on all of Emirates' sales channels using a bespoke link between Emirates and fastjet's reservations system.
