Travelling in Africa is really a nighmare. Inter African air travel is expensive, tedious and unreliable!
Matters are not helped that some airlines have made it a habit to fight for and bite more than they can chew. Kenya Airways, which proudly calls itself, the Pride of Africa, can as well consider rebranding as the Bully of Africa. Or better still the Matatu of African Skies. The monopoly in the regions skies is making this airline behave like a spoilt child, who doesnt give a damn whether breaking wind at a family tea party would annoy the guests and dent the family image.
It has given them a licence to deny the passengers a stress-free journey above the clouds. You can rightly so accuse me of pandering to misplaced national pride, but an interplay of bad luck, huge debt burden and lack of bail-out from equally limping saviours (governments) have all conspired to keep the wings of other airlines - Air Tanzania and Uganda Airlines - out of the skies, leaving the turf for Kenya Airways.
In the spirit of East Africa, we dont mind them flying us to our destinations. For, we must stick to what we do best without begrudging competitors. If the core competence of Uganda is to brew Tonto, for example, she must stick to that and make it better. But we are bothered that even when we are left with no choice but them, they fly us without due regard to our comfort.
We whine and rant about KQ incessantly, but we have to breathe-in faith and breath-out fear and then board because sometimes it is the only connection we have to other airlines. Sometimes the planes that come to Entebbe from Nairobi are dirty. The time in between the flights is too short for the cleaners to clean each and everything. Twice a cockroach has crawled onto my arms!
When I brought it to the attention of the air hostess, Gertrude, she only sighed and said sorry, and tried hard not expose this glitch to the other passengers. This was on one of those 11pm flights to Entebbe.
This airline is particularly nasty at keeping time. You could check in to leave Nairobi at 7am and end up leaving in the evening! The flight cancellations and delays are dizzying and passengers are no longer sure about catching their connections with other flights or meeting their deadlines. When they detect overbooking, passengers are rushed into the planes and counters closed.
It has degenerated into a game of survival for the fittest. One may report within check-in time, only to be told that the counters are closed and the plane is taxiing. Sometimes you just have to restrain the out-burst and table banging for the counter girls who feed you with lots of rehearsed lies. They are just doing their work without really doing it.
Recently the airline took the unusual step of keeping our luggage behind for fear of busting the weight limits. We were traveling from Bamako to Entebbe via Nairobi. All the Nairobi bound passengers arrived without their luggage. I didnt know my baggage was not on board until arriving at Entebbe.
Apparently there were some weight precautions, so in their wisdom, they decided to deliver the passengers first and collect the bags on the next flight. This information was revealed to me by a trusted source. It took me four days to get my luggage back. Surprisingly, this time it was intact, nothing was missing. Oddly, most of the times I travel with KQ, my luggage is mishandled.
Written by Pius Muteekani Katunzi
I even told colleagues at Bamako to carry for me some stuff in their hand luggage because my instincts had told me the luggage would not be at Entebbe. They were all amazed at my prophetic mind when it happened. I told them, I was not prophetic but I had studied the trends and I am conditioned to expecting the worst whenever I am forced to use this airline.
The question is why is KQ the most mentioned in this shoddy baggage handling? I was told most of the time the fault falls on ground handling staff who misplace and mishandle passengers luggage. Granted, but why is it so common with KQ? All the time I have traveled with this airline, I have endured more stress than comfort.
So, I have now been advised to next time fly Kenya Airways but use any other airline to carry my luggage.
The author is the Business Development Director of The Observer Media Ltd.
pmkatunzi@observer.ug
Matters are not helped that some airlines have made it a habit to fight for and bite more than they can chew. Kenya Airways, which proudly calls itself, the Pride of Africa, can as well consider rebranding as the Bully of Africa. Or better still the Matatu of African Skies. The monopoly in the regions skies is making this airline behave like a spoilt child, who doesnt give a damn whether breaking wind at a family tea party would annoy the guests and dent the family image.
It has given them a licence to deny the passengers a stress-free journey above the clouds. You can rightly so accuse me of pandering to misplaced national pride, but an interplay of bad luck, huge debt burden and lack of bail-out from equally limping saviours (governments) have all conspired to keep the wings of other airlines - Air Tanzania and Uganda Airlines - out of the skies, leaving the turf for Kenya Airways.
In the spirit of East Africa, we dont mind them flying us to our destinations. For, we must stick to what we do best without begrudging competitors. If the core competence of Uganda is to brew Tonto, for example, she must stick to that and make it better. But we are bothered that even when we are left with no choice but them, they fly us without due regard to our comfort.
We whine and rant about KQ incessantly, but we have to breathe-in faith and breath-out fear and then board because sometimes it is the only connection we have to other airlines. Sometimes the planes that come to Entebbe from Nairobi are dirty. The time in between the flights is too short for the cleaners to clean each and everything. Twice a cockroach has crawled onto my arms!
When I brought it to the attention of the air hostess, Gertrude, she only sighed and said sorry, and tried hard not expose this glitch to the other passengers. This was on one of those 11pm flights to Entebbe.
This airline is particularly nasty at keeping time. You could check in to leave Nairobi at 7am and end up leaving in the evening! The flight cancellations and delays are dizzying and passengers are no longer sure about catching their connections with other flights or meeting their deadlines. When they detect overbooking, passengers are rushed into the planes and counters closed.
It has degenerated into a game of survival for the fittest. One may report within check-in time, only to be told that the counters are closed and the plane is taxiing. Sometimes you just have to restrain the out-burst and table banging for the counter girls who feed you with lots of rehearsed lies. They are just doing their work without really doing it.
Recently the airline took the unusual step of keeping our luggage behind for fear of busting the weight limits. We were traveling from Bamako to Entebbe via Nairobi. All the Nairobi bound passengers arrived without their luggage. I didnt know my baggage was not on board until arriving at Entebbe.
Apparently there were some weight precautions, so in their wisdom, they decided to deliver the passengers first and collect the bags on the next flight. This information was revealed to me by a trusted source. It took me four days to get my luggage back. Surprisingly, this time it was intact, nothing was missing. Oddly, most of the times I travel with KQ, my luggage is mishandled.
Written by Pius Muteekani Katunzi
I even told colleagues at Bamako to carry for me some stuff in their hand luggage because my instincts had told me the luggage would not be at Entebbe. They were all amazed at my prophetic mind when it happened. I told them, I was not prophetic but I had studied the trends and I am conditioned to expecting the worst whenever I am forced to use this airline.
The question is why is KQ the most mentioned in this shoddy baggage handling? I was told most of the time the fault falls on ground handling staff who misplace and mishandle passengers luggage. Granted, but why is it so common with KQ? All the time I have traveled with this airline, I have endured more stress than comfort.
So, I have now been advised to next time fly Kenya Airways but use any other airline to carry my luggage.
The author is the Business Development Director of The Observer Media Ltd.
pmkatunzi@observer.ug
