Kenya Airways Cargo launches direct freight service from Sharjah to Mogadishu

Friday, February 9, 2024

Kenya Airways Cargo, also known as KQ Cargo, has broadened its route network by introducing direct cargo flights between Sharjah, UAE, and Mogadishu, Somalia. This new route, effective from February 9th, 2024, will initially operate on a weekly basis, with plans to increase to twice weekly by April 2024. KQ Cargo has formed a partnership with Global GSA Cargo LLC, a prominent global cargo sales and service agent based in the UAE, to handle logistics for this route.

This expansion comes as KQ Cargo recently enhanced its freighter capabilities with the introduction of a B737-800F aircraft, offering extended range capabilities. This aircraft facilitates connections between crucial cargo hubs, opening up fresh opportunities to meet evolving market demands.

Dick Murianki, Director of KQ Cargo, emphasizes that this new route aligns with Kenya Airways’ renewed mission of fostering Africa’s prosperity through enhanced connectivity across people, cultures, and markets. He underlines KQ Cargo’s commitment to becoming Africa’s preferred cargo carrier, providing customers with unique network options.

“We are delighted to expand our world-class logistics service to underserved markets with a solid product, and we believe in having a direct service complemented by Dubai’s trader, transit, humanitarian, and project-driven traffic. The direct route between UAE and Somalia offers huge demand for air freight transportation, particularly high-tech consumer goods, automotive parts, project cargo, and clothing, which are the most frequently flown goods on the route. Kenya Airways’ has the expertise in the region, and our B737-800F’s apt capacity would be the ideal mix over the long term..” Says Mr Murianki.

On his part, the CEO of Global GSA Cargo LLC, Mr Kannan Nachiappan, said that the direct connection between UAE and Somalia offers customers more capacity, cuts transit times and reduces costs.  

“UAE, being a multimodal logistics hub, acts as a primary gateway to Africa, and having a dedicated KQ Cargo freighter to offer this service helps cut transit times and offer scheduled main deck capacity into several remote destinations across the region. This service would cover a market characterised by narrow body belly-only options, lengthy transit times, and expensive rates.” Says Mr Nachiappan. 

Additionally, Kenya Airways will resume direct passenger flights between Nairobi and Mogadishu starting from February 15th, 2024.

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