Captain Hussein Mohammed Archives

Bluebird Aviation to Help Ease Flight Disruptions Caused By KQ Pilots’ Strike

by Mustafa Juma November 7, 2022

Bluebird Aviation is ready to help ease the current flight disruptions that have been caused by the ongoing Kenya Airways (KQ) pilots’ strike.

The airline in a press statement announced that it is ready to take up passengers on charter flights.

Bluebird Aviation General Manager Captain Hussein Mohammed said all passengers currently stranded in various airports should try out the airline’s unrivalled experience with more customised services.

“ We are ready to take in passengers on charter flight basis. We welcome all passengers currently stranded in various airports to come and savour our unrivalled experience with more customised services,” said Captain Mohammed.

Kenya Airways on Saturday requested its passengers to cancel their tickets for other available airlines.

The KQ pilots have gone on a strike to protest against failure to implement pay rise.

November 7, 2022 0 comment

Business

Confidence among air travellers slowly growing, Bluebird aviation says

by Mustafa Juma June 14, 2021

written by Mustafa Juma

Confidence among people flying for leisure and business in Kenya and across the globe is slowly growing, one of the leading regional airlines, Bluebird aviation has said.

According to the airline’s General Manager Captain Hussein Mohammed confidence in travellers to be able to fly and the feeling that ones health is not going to be affected and that they are not fearful of COVID-19 is growing but at a slow pace.

In a press release sent to newsrooms, Captain Mohammed noted that the confidence is improving, though slowly and laboriously.

“Initially I had thought that by the end of this year, that improvement would have increased significantly, but with what is going on in places like India, and low vaccination numbers in our country and limited availability and accessibility of vaccines has impacted on the growing confidence to fly again,” noted Captain Hussein Mohammed.

According to a report by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), African airlines lost $10.21 (about Sh1.1 trillion) in passenger revenue in 2020 when the travel industry was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report indicates that the number of scheduled passengers carried by African airlines fell by 63.7 per cent from 95 million in 2019 to 34.7 million in 2020.

Captain Mohammed projects that it will take about the end of 2022 for most travellers to regain the confidence to fly again and when a larger population would have gotten at least the first dose of the vaccines which is protective enough and 100 per cent against hospitalisation and at least 90 per cent against severe form of COVID-19.

However, the captain notes that one will need to get the second dose to feel fully protected.

June 14, 2021 0 comment

Business

Airline Industry To Start Picking Up In Last Half Of 2021, Bluebird Aviation Projects

by Mustafa Juma February 16, 2021

written by Mustafa Juma

The aviation sector could start picking up towards the last half of the year 2021, Bluebird Aviation, a top regional airline has projected.

According to the Aviation General Manager, Captain Hussein Mohammed, there was a ray of hope for the aviation sector with the planned roll out of COVID-19 Vaccines despite the results of the pandemic which caused a total disruption in the aviation industry.

He added that flights capacity has remained less than 50 per cent for all airlines across, local, regional and international markets since the outbreak of coronavirus.

“Is it coming back? Yes it is coming back slowly, but a bit too slowly. By now it should be more than 50 per cent capacity. We hope that with Vaccination coming, the industry will start picking up in the last half of the year,” said Captain Mohammed.

A national traveller readiness surveys since the start of the global pandemic, commissioned by The National Tourism Crisis Steering Committee, the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) released early February 2020 shows 65 per cent of travellers are willing and ready to start to travel again domestically compared to 34 per cent regionally and 25 per cent internationally.

However, the survey also indicated that majority of the respondents are extremely concerned with being quarantined at the destination (76 per cent) followed by contracting COVID-19 (61 per cent).

Captain Mohammed said travellers’ confidence to start travelling again could be best addressed through introduction of a Vaccination ‘passport’ to address the underlying concerns.

To stay afloat, BlueBird Aviation embarked on strategic marketing with prospective clients, reducing flight charter costs and harmonisation of salaries.

February 16, 2021 0 comment