Kenya’s national carrier Kenyan Airways has announced the resumption of flights to Italy in June 2021.
This comes more than a year after all flights to and from Italy were cancelled indefinitely due to the huge numbers of COVID-19 infections being reported from the country at the time.
On Friday, KQ’s chief customer and commercial officer Julius Thairu in a statement said that they are still monitoring the situation in Italy.
He said that their projection has it that June will be a safe month for the airline to resume operations in Italy.
He added that the airline is keeping an eye on all destinations where KQ previously operated but suspended flights due to COVID-19.
When COVID-19 struck in March, Italy emerged to be among the hardest hit country in the world months later followed by the UK and the US.
On March 3, the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus (NERCC) led by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe first banned flights from Northern Italy which hosts Milan and Verona.
“Following Consultations with the Italian Embassy and Stake Holders, the National Emergency Response Committee on Corona Virus (NERCC) has concluded that flights from the North of Italy, specifically Verona and Milan which usually has direct chartered flights to our coast be suspended effective March 3rd, 2020,” Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna read NERCC’s statement.
A month later, deaths in their thousands were reported daily forcing KQ to cancel all flight to and from Italy on April 30, 2020.
Italy has recorded 2.7 million COVID-19 cases, two million recoveries and 93,045 deaths since March.
The Italian government in 2020 imposed a lockdown in the peninsula to tame the spread of the disease that was spreading like bushfire.
