By Antynet Ford
Kenya Airways is exposed to potential penalties over flight delays in Nairobi and Entebbe, Uganda connections.
This comes after the launch of the probe by the COMESA Competition Commission.
The regional competition watchdog started the investigations following a complaint raised by four passengers following a delay of six hours at the Entebbe International Airport disrupting their connection flights.
The four who were enroute to Livingstone via KQ in August last year were to travel to Nairobi from Entebbe then Lusaka, Zambia before going to Livingstone told the Commission that they missed their fights from Nairobi onwards.
When they arrived in Nairobi, the passengers had to wait for another seven hours for the flight which had been rebooked.
The competition commission revealed that Kenya Airways did not bother to reroute the passengers to their destination and instead, the passengers who were enroute and midway through their journey had to arrange for themselves through an agent to obtain a rerouting to their destination.
Kenya Airways has also been accused of not providing accommodation and meals for the four after they landed in Lusaka yet their original flight had departed.
When they raised their complaints to the National Carrier via their official email, KQ responded to them stating that accommodation, meals, and new flight connections were their responsibility as it was outside KQ’s contract with passengers as it had been terminated after landing in Lusaka.
Other aggrieved travelers told the Commission last month they had to wait at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for over six hours after their flight which was scheduled to depart at 01:35 am left at 07:30 am for Entebbe.
According to the complaint, all the passengers who has assembled at the boarding gate were informed of the change last minute and provided with snacks and refreshments as they waited.
KQ had announced that the next departure time would be 05:30 am but the time lapsed before they were informed that the plane would leave at 06:30 am.
The national carrier has been accused of not providing meals and accommodation to the passengers who were affected.
The commission’s director and Chief Executive Officer, Willard Mwemba has explained that Kenya Airways violated Article 28 of the COMESA Competition Regulations, which prohibits unconscionable conduct in the supply of services.
“The conduct of Kenya Airways may not be in line with the code of practice in the industry as well as other international conventions governing the aviation industry and its terms of carriage,” stated Mwemba.
Although the investigation does not yet imply any confirmed breach, COMESA emphasized the importance of transparency and stakeholder involvement.
“All representations submitted to the commission will be treated with the strictest confidentiality and will only be used for this investigation,” Mwemba noted.
He called on other aggrieved travelers to come forward and share their experiences to expedite the investigation.
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