Admin issues
A creeping problem of spam comments at Bankelele became a full blown attack crisis over the weekend. As such, “word verification” will now be required before comments can be posted to this site. Asante sana kwa wale Wakenya ambao wameandika maneno mazuri na ya maana hapa – mudendeee hivyo vivyo.
KQ undoing?
Kenya Airways had many passengers inconvenienced by the airport closing on Saturday morning. But there have also been many incidents of overbooking (especially on the Nairobi-Mombasa route), passengers being deplaned, missing luggage, neglect by staff and hate mail campaigns. This "don’t care" attitude among staff is a product of rumours of imminent retrenchment and the matter should be urgently addressed by KQ management.
Media debate
The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) will hold its monthly public forum at the Stanley on October 4th at 5:30 PM to discuss a media code of conduct during the referendum period.
NCBDA AGM
The Nairobi Central Business District Association (NCBDA) will hold an annual general meeting on October 5th at 2:30 PM at the Hilton. On the agenda are election of new governing council members, amendments to the association articles, auditor, financial, and other issues.
Embassy Sale
The former US Embassy building on Mombasa Road, which was used for a couple of years after the ’98 Embassy bombing, has been put up for sale. It can be viewed on October 12th by prospective buyers who are expected to bid not less than $500,000 (36.5 million shillings) for the building.
Way to Go
Controversial road contractor Sunil Behal died in murky circumstances over the weekend. I wonder how I will go when my time comes.
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5 comments:
KQ certianly has issues they need to deal with esp overbooking BUT overbooking is common in the industry. It does cost KQ money coz they have to reimburse passengers.
KQ is buying new planes (first reported by you) to is redeploying aircraft to better travelled routes like Nbi-Jo'burg (777 on Friday) & Nbi-Msa (777 Lon-Nbi-Msa).
Other issues are coz of poor airport facilities managed by KAA, govt bureaucrazy & apathy.
Dilapidated airport facilities means delayed flights, slower turnaround of planes & crew, etc.
Nairobi Int'l airport was built 25 years ago with no significant improvements! There is still only one way in & out. Domestic & International flights need to be separated for efficiency.
Mombasa Int'l airport is much smaller with no walkways & no distinction between domestic & international departures! Thus a domestic traveller with one handbag has to wait in line with international travellers with 2 huge suitcases!
I can't speak about the hate mail but the staff could be more polite nevertheless sometimes the passengers expect KQ to do what is KAA's responsibility.
The 8 hour delay could have been less drastic if KAA had another terminal building for local flights. All flights from Msa & Kisumu could be diverted to the domestic terminal.
In addition, JKIA needs a new runway to handle extra traffic esp with KQ's expanded schedule!
as a proud shareholder, and occasional passenger, i'd like to see them excel, but the Mombasa route has too many over-bookings nightmares
I experienced the hate mail making the rounds recently. Simply disgruntled employees bitter about what they perceive to be his 'corrupt rise to power'. I found it terribly scandalous and malicious for anyone to forward the mail!
Though on JKIA, I question the sense in incurring 7 billion to style up the JKIA and still not have an additional runway to cater for increased plane traffic.
Kibet & Kuoasan: JKIA needs 2nd runway, but what happened to plan to convert old airport to dometic terminal? many huge airports like mumbai or chichago have building so far apart you have to take train/tax/bus to connect, and this would be a cheap way for JKIA to expand capacity.
O'hare (Chicago) is the busiest US airport & they plan to upgrade the airport to allow for 50% more flights (local & domestic)while cutting down on delays. In addition, they might add a new terminal to accomodate the A380.
The terminals & parking are connected by a train aka "people mover".
www.ohare.com
Mumbai is pathetic BUT they do plan to link the Int'l airport with the domestic airport via a overhead train.
Yes, JKIA needs another runway in addition to expanding their domestic capabilities. It is silly to expand the airport & not provide a 2nd runway.
So JKIA should have a 2nd (Int'l) runway in addition to a domestic/regional (Kenya, TZ & Uganda & later Burundi & Rwanda) terminal & runway at Embakasi.
Like Bankelele says... have a train that connects them as well as bus services in the event the train breaks down!
At KQ's current levels of growth (20%) KQ will 4 million passengers in 2008. Add other airlines & JKIA+Embakasi should be able to support 7 Million passengers.
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