The Boeing 757 Freighter flight left Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Monday 5 June following a colourful inauguration ceremony attended by dignitaries including Mithika Linturi, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Michael Lotem, Israeli Ambassador in Kenya.
At the ceremony, CEO of Astral Aviation, Sanjeev Gadhia said that the direct flight will reduce transit times from 24 hours to 5 hours for Kenyan perishable exports, which previously went via hubs such as Istanbul, Addis Ababa and Dubai.
The route will serve perishable exports and open up new markets for Israeli exports in Africa travelling via Nairobi.
Thanking the Astral team, Linturi says, “With the support of the Ministry of Transport you are now able to take us to Israel. I want to most sincerely congratulate you for the job you’ve done and I want to ask you to increase capacity so we can export even more products to other countries.”
Lotem adds, “I promise you that the government of Israel and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not only support your process of getting more products to get your cargo full but also to get a full cargo from Tel Aviv to Kenya.”
Astral Aviation will increase the flight frequency from once to twice a week and upgrade the 757 to a 767.
In Tel Aviv, Astral Aviation is being represented by Globespeed and handled by Maman/Laufer Aviation.