Fly540 (FFV, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) is to lodge a formal petition with the Competition Authority of Kenya against Jambojet (JM, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) over alleged “anti-competitive behaviour.” Kenya's Business Standard says Fly540 will base its case on JamboJet's ownership by Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) which it says will put it and other smaller Kenyan carriers at risk.
“We are looking at our options to go to the Competition Authority as we believe it (introduction of Jambojet) could bring anti-competitive behaviour due to the shareholding of Jambo,” said Don Smith, Fly540’s chief executive officer.
Jambojet is due to launch on April 1 with initial services to cover Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta to Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret. Kenya Airways has already announced it will pull out of Eldoret on April the first to make way for JamboJet.
Fly540 currently serves Kisumu, Eldoret, Lamu, Lodwar, Malindi, and Mombasa locally with Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Juba regionally.
Willem Hondius, CEO of Jambojet, also rejected Smith's claims that Jambojet's business model was flawed stating that his airline would attempt to grow the local market by attracting people who had never considered flying as an option.
"We are in the market to attract new passengers. People who have never flown before or people who will fly more frequent than they do now,” he said.
Hondius also expressed surprise at Fly540's move to drag Jambojet before the competition watchdog noting that during his airline's licensing hearings with the Kenya Civil Aviation (KCAA), no objections from any local operators were brought forward.
