Kenya Airways has announced the commencement of direct flights between the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi and London-Gatwick Airport (LGW) for the summer of 2025. The flights will supplement the carrier’s other services to London, which serve London-Heathrow with a daily service.
The new 4,218-mile (6,718km) route, with a flying time of around eight hours and 30 minutes, is scheduled to begin on July 2, 2025, and will operate three times each week, departing Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Like the Heathrow flights, all services to Gatwick are expected to be operated by the carrier’s fleet of nine Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, which accommodate 234 passengers in a two-class configuration.
While the Heathrow flights are seen as providing vital onward connections through London to other points worldwide, including the US, the Gatwick flights are expected to serve more point-to-point traffic.
The move comes as other airline are increasing their services between the continent of Africa and the UK. Just recently, British Airways announced it would be increasing its own flights between London and Nairobi from five per week to a daily service starting June 7, 2025. These will then increase further to ten flights per week from July 14, 2025, and 11 per week from July 28, 2025.
Not only is the UK flag carrier increasing frequencies on the route, but in February 2025, it made a switch from operating Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners on the route to the significantly larger Airbus A350-1000, supposedly to accommodate the rapid rise in UK tourists visiting Kenya. The new Airbus A350 flights can offer up to 184 extra seats per flight compared to the previous Boeing 787-8, representing an increase of 62% in capacity. To smooth the entry process in Kenya, UK passport holders can obtain an e-visa via an online application before travel.
Increased competition to Africa
Yet, it is not only British Airways that is offering additional capacity from London to West Africa. On May 18, 2025, Uganda Airlines started its new nonstop service linking Entebbe (EBB) in Uganda to London-Gatwick. The new route reintroduced a direct service between the UK and the African country, a decade after British Airways discontinued its services between London-Heathrow and Entebbe
When Uganda Airlines’ new service was announced in March 2025, Heathrow had been the airline’s initial choice of airport, but the lack of slots and cost considerations led to it opting for Gatwick as its British gateway instead, a m, move that will now pitch it in direct competition for traffic to the region from London against the new Kenya Airways services to Gatwick.
Meanwhile, other airlines serving both Entebbe and London also stepped up their sales activities, which is a benefit to travelers who are cost-conscious and do not mind having an intermediate stop at a third airport en route. Airline serving such locations as Kigali, Addis Ababa, Cairo, and beyond Africa, Dubai, Doha, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Brussels are all reporting an upsurge in numbers in recent weeks as the added competition is driving down air fares between the two regions.
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