Kenya Airways Economy Review
Nairobi (NBO) to Mombasa (MBA)
Airplane: 737-800
Flight Number: KQ604
Departure: 10:00am (10:09am Actual)
Arrival: 11:00am (10:58am Actual)
Hey, and welcome to the next in my series of Airline reviews, this one is short and sweet as it was a short hope from Nairobi the capital city of Kenya to the beach town of Mombasa.
Booking
This flight was actually booked whilst I was on my way to Heathrow for my flight from London to Nairobi. Approximately a week before my planned travel. The flight cost £110 return in economy, which wasn’t too bad given how close it was to the travel date. I did find the Kenya Airways website difficult to navigate on my phone, so gave in and paid the extra £12 to book it with Expedia.
Arrival At NBO
Security is quite strict at Nairobi airport, approximately 5km from the airport random cars are pulled over and checked, and 2km away from the airport all cars are scanned whilst passengers and their well-wishers go through security scanners by foot before going back into their vehicles after they clear security.
At the airport only ticketed passengers are allowed into the terminal, where before check-in there are further scans of bags. Passengers do walk through the metal detectors but at this point I believe the bags are the priority. After all this it’s time for check in.
Check In
Rather than the self-check-in process I opted to stand in the queue, the process was surprisingly quick given that the queue had a dozen people in front and only two desks open. Peter was fantastic, and even suggested a few locations in Mombasa for me.
After this, yet another security check; a full-blown scan and hand luggage scanned once again. A rare surprise, no enhance “random” security checks for me today!
The terminal is quite small with four gates for domestic flights, I killed the time by grabbing a quick coffee and catching up on work emails. I was lucky to find a quiet spot in the corner of the terminal to do so.
The boarding process was quite quick, we had a fair old walk from the gate to the plane on the tarmac, but given the gorgeous weather I wasn’t too bothered.
On Board
Walking passed the business class seats, I was quite surprised by how comfortable it looked when compared to the BA offerings on short-haul business class.
I was sat 14 row’s back on the wing, and was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it was. Lots of leg-room for me. To be fair, I think it’d still be comfortable for someone 6 feet plus.
As you can expect on a short-haul internal flight, no entertainment but the usual airline magazines to keep you updated.
Once in the air, the flight attendants provided a drink and snack service. On offer in economy was two packs of peanuts, and a wide selection of soft drinks. No real need to do this in my opinion for a flight that’s not even an hour long.
Conclusion
Being quite frank, I had zero expectations from Kenya Airways given then stories I’d heard from family and friends who had flown with them previously. Mainly regarding flights being constantly late, lost luggage and poor customer service. It was the complete opposite for me, the flight arrived within the allotted time, my checked-in luggage arrived and the customer service both on the ground and on board were better than I’ve seen on short-haul flights within Europe. I’d be keen on giving them a try on a longer route, but perhaps on a newer plane. They currently have several new Dreamliner 787 planes flying to long-haul destinations.
