NEWS
Airline on the spot over inconsistent price fluctuations
MANDERA—I-fly, one of the airlines that ply the Nairobi-Mandera route, is on the spot over inconsistent price fluctuations. The airline, which operates a daily flight between Mandera and Nairobi, on Thursday suspended flights over fall-out with local travel agents.
In a statement, the airline said that despite heeding calls to reduce the ticket prices from Ksh 30,000 to Ksh 16,000, they found the ground hostile.
However, a close analysis of a one-way ticket on Thursday morning indicates that the price on their portal revealed Ksh 19,000 and not Ksh 16,000 as claimed. By evening the same day, and shortly after the airline announced indefinite suspension of flights, the price dramatically dropped to Ksh 15,000, a thousand less than it had earlier proclaimed.
The airline cited malice, saying section of the county leaders are colluding with travel agents to frustrate its operations in the area.
“Some of the county leadership and the travel agents operating in Mandera have jointly disrupted our regular operations. They have made it clear that this is a fight based on extraneous issues and has nothing to do with serving the interests of the larger population, as initially portrayed,” the airline said in the statement.
— i-FlyAir (@i_FlyAir) December 21, 2023
It further stated that: “According to reliable sources, we’ve been informed with solid evidence that passengers are being transported from Mandera to Elwak town in a Land Cruiser, only to be transported to Nairobi at a price of Kshs. 18,000. We meantime cancelled today’s Mandera flight for security and safety reasons.”
On Thursday, the flight returned to Nairobi without any passengers after angry protesters blocked the way to the airport, demanding “a fair play.”
Last week, the governor of Mandera County Mohamed Khalif said that airlines that won’t heed “our demands will have to find other routes.”
