Foreigners keen on leaving Kenya over Covid-19 fears on Saturday, April 8, will be parting with more than 8 times the average cost of a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Nairobi before incurring additional fees to continue their journey.
A travel alert by the US Embassy in Nairobi informed Americans still planning to travel to book the remaining available seats in a plane chartered by the Japanese Government.
''The Embassy of Japan has organised an Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET8672 from Nairobi to Addis Ababa on Saturday, April 18, the chartered aircraft still has some seats available for use by any passengers that need to leave the country,'' read the alert.
Passengers intending to book seats offered on a first-come, first-serve basis, will have fork out $1250 (Approx Ksh132,375) to be flown to Addis Ababa before paying more to their final destination. This is compared to an average of $148 (Approx Ksh 15,734) for the a-little-over-one-hour flight during regular seasons
Passengers who shall be on a long layover will have to pay more as they wait for their flights in hotels used by the Ethiopian government for quarantine.
''Travellers transiting through Addis Ababa with a long layover must go to one of the government-owned quarantine hotels at their own expense,
''Please note that Japanese travel agency, H.I.S. will arrange this flight takes you to Addis Ababa at the above price and the flight from Addis Ababa to your final destination at an additional fee,'' the travel alert further reads.
An official of the US Embassy said that the reason for charging citizens for the flight was not informed by an incident that happened on April 5, in Nigeria where more Nigerians with US passports outnumbered the US citizens who turned up for evacuation.
''Each citizen is required to pay for their own cost of evacuation and the US government can loan an evacuate after filling some forms on a repayment plan, the cost of $1250 has been set by the airline and not in any way informed by what happened in Nigeria,'' said Linda Hilda, a communications officer at the US Embassy.
However, the only passengers allowed to reserve a seat on the Saturday flight from Nairobi to Addis must show proof that they have already booked a commercial flight from Ethiopia with those suffering from flu and coronavirus not allowed to board.
''Passengers should be prepared to provide evidence that they have an onward flight at the time of boarding in Nairobi failure to which they will not be allowed to board, also note that if you are infected with the Covid-19 virus, or you have a symptom like flu, you are not able to board the flight.''
Ethiopian Airlines is yet to ground its international flights as most flights in African have suspended travel to Covid-19 hit destinations, the government of Kenya banned flight from travelling in and out of the country with the only exception of cargo planes and planes used for evacuation purposes.
“This suspension will however not apply to those flights that are coming in to evacuate foreign nationals from the country. It also exempts the cargo flights that are coming into the country to deliver goods. They must not have passengers on board,” Transport CS James Macharia.
