Tourism East Africa - Afrikan Heroes

East African Countries Lift Ban on International Flights to Kick-start Tourism

August 2, 2020

As countries across the world cautiously open their economies after the lockdown, East African countries whose economies depends so much in tourism have opened up their international skies to resume flights. The decision by Kenya and Rwanda to reopen their skies amidst a surge in COVID-19 cases follows similar decisions in Tanzania and South Sudan in June. Kenya opened the airports for domestic flights since July 15, a fortnight after President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the phased reopening and said the country would adopt a wait-and-see approach to any changes in the preventative measures it has instituted since March.

In late July, Kenyan Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has announced 11 countries that will be allowed to originate internationally, but added this list would be reviewed daily. Of its five neighbors, Nairobi would allow flights from Uganda and Ethiopia, as well as its East African Community partner Rwanda. Tanzania, understandably was not on the list as the extent and rate of infections in the country is unknown.Tanzania stopped announcing official figures of the pandemic in April, and while reopening the country in early June, President Magufuli declared that it was coronavirus-free. Although the list also includes Uganda whose President, Yoweri Museveni put up stringent measures to tackle the spread of the virus, but in his latest update, President Museveni said Uganda’s borders will remain closed “because there is so much chaos in some of these countries abroad.”

Ethiopia’s response has been more measured, as its airline continued flying to destinations that still allowed flights. By early July, the country’s airline was flying to about 40 destinations.

While international passengers entering Kenya and Rwanda will be required to show result of a negative Cocid-19 test, the two countries’ new entry rules differ significantly on the specifics. For example, while Kenya will accept test results produced seven days to arrival, Rwanda’s rules require test results produced 72 hours before. The Kenyan government said it will neither quarantine or retest passengers unless they show symptoms and will rely mainly on temperature checks to determine high-risk travellers. Rwanda however, will re-test all passengers on arrival, and quarantine them for a day awaiting results. According to at Ndegwa Karanja, the acting managing director for Kenyan low-cost carrier Jambojet, the measures adopted by Rwanda and Uganda will definitely make it hard for passengers and it will affect patronage making them unprofitable for some airlines. Adding that “we are accessing the demand and return conditions. With mandatory quarantine in Rwanda and Uganda, the demand will be quite low,”

Despite these differences in approach, the reasons for reopening are mostly the same, the region’s economies it must be said have taken a battering when the pandemic made landfall in the region four months ago, straining public health resources and requiring extensive lockdowns and testing.

Initially, Kenya’s President had said that his administration “opted for the health over economy argument, but added the country had since reached a reasonable level of preparedness across the board to allow a phased re-opening. With about 20,000 confirmed cases, Kenya has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the region. But the economic argument of reopening its borders is driven mainly by its dependence on tourism as one of its main foreign exchange earners, while Rwanda has been building a brand as a conferencing hub. How these new measures will be accepted by both airlines and passengers remains to be seen.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry