Kenya’s Visa-Free Policy Doubles Nigerian Traffic, KQ Eyes Lagos Expansion, Abuja Relaunch

Chief Commercial and Customer Officer Julius Thairu said his country’s visa policy has seen a huge growth in arrivals from Nigeria.

  Although he has no accurate statistics on the number of Nigerians entering the country, he disclosed that this has also benefited Kenya Airways, as its numbers have doubled since the borders opened.

Speaking to Aviation Metric at a colourful dinner and award celebration to recognise and appreciate travel trade and industry partners who have collaborated and worked closely with the airline over the years, described it as a good sign.

He stated that Nigerians are welcome in Kenya for business, investment, and, even more importantly, tourism, adding that people are looking for experiences, especially post-COVID.

Kenya’s shift toward an open-border framework, launched with great fanfare in January 2024 under the banner of a “visa-free country” using an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, has evolved significantly.

The transition from traditional sticker visas to an automated digital portal (and the subsequent complete exemption of most African and Caribbean nationals from both visas and ETAs) has been a powerful driver of demand for commercial aviation.

The policy has solidified Nairobi’s positioning as the premier logistical and transit hub for East Africa. Increased point-to-point traffic directly feeds transit networks, allowing carriers to better leverage global airline alliances (such as SkyTeam) by funnelling regional passengers onto long-haul international flights.

Tairu said, “With the change of demographics, the younger people, for them, experiences, living life, are a lot more important than saving up money. So, as Kenya Airways, we are part of that experience that people are looking for. We don’t, of course, only serve Kenya. We also use Nairobi as our hub to connect Nigerians to other parts of Africa.”

With the planned relaunch of the Abuja route with a Dreamliner aircraft, Tairu disclosed that their plan for the Abuja route was because of strong growth in the market, saying, “Our operations in Nigeria are profitable operations. That’s important for the business because you have to make money so that you can reinvest”.

“Our plans are first to increase capacity or to put more seats in the Lagos market. And we know the right way to do that is to bring a bigger aircraft. Because we also want to offer a premium product that is also competitive.

“We also want to target the high-end of the market, the customers who want to fly business class. So, we’ve started on some days, we bring a Dreamliner. We are working behind the scenes to bring more Dreamliners to Kenya Airways’ fleet so that we can fly twice a day. Because our target for the Lagos market is to fly twice a day with a big aircraft, Abuja is very strategic for us because, one, we want to connect the two capitals.”

 He explained that the only reason they have not been able to do Abuja now is that they need to bring in new fleets for them to be able to open the destination, adding, “But we used to operate some time back. So, it’s a market that we know and we know their demand.”

“What is actually interesting for the Nigerian market is that our most valuable Asante members are actually from this market. We have quite a number of people who fly with us more than 100 times in a year. It is amazing. More than 100. That level of loyalty is something that we don’t take for granted., We are constantly in touch with them, reaching out and banking them for the business.”

Wole Shadare