Kenya Airways will on 10 June operate a repatriation flight to bring back Kenyan nationals stranded in India under the COVID-19-induced lockdown, CEO Allan Kilavuka said on Tuesday in an interview with Nation media
The CEO said flight 7641 will leave Mumbai for Nairobi at 9.30am and touch down at 1.15pm, with those availing for the repatriation flights to be charged Kshs 120,000 on the ticket back. The airline CEO also noted that the flights will be “happening on a case by case basis” subject to government approval.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), insists that on arrival from India, all passengers will be screened and put under quarantine for a period of 14 days as a COVID-19 precautionary measure.
“All passenger flights between India and Kenya are suspended. Only Kenyans and Indians who are residents in Kenya are allowed to travel from India to Kenya, provided they possess a Covid-19 PCR negative test result conducted within 96 hours before travel and submit an antigen test on arrival.”
“If the antigen test is negative, travellers shall self-quarantine for 14 days at home and if it is positive, they shall self-isolate in a government facility, while being monitored, for 14 days and at their own cost.”
A statement by the airline says, “KQ will only accept passengers with a negative RT-PCR test report and a QR code for boarding on June 10. No exceptions made.”
India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus with all commercial passenger flights being suspended for this period.
The first and second phases of lockdown in India were from March 25 to April 14 and April 15 to May 3, respectively. The third phase began May 4 and would end on May 17. The novel coronavirus has infected approximately 28,996,949 people in India till now.
Photo: @aviator_nic
By Victor Shalton Odhiambo
