Astral Aviation boosts East African freight schedules

With intra-African load factors increasing on key routes to Juba, Mogadishu and Mwanza, Astral Aviation has added updated its freighter schedule to reflect changes in demand across East Africa.

With the closure of the Juba International Airport on weekends, Astral will now operate three weekly frequencies from Nairobi to Juba to accommodate for the increase in cargo. An additional frequency from Nairobi to Mogadishu bumps that route up to twice a week, catering to the increase in peace-keeping cargo needs. From Mogadishu, Astral said it will be able to provide an on-forwarding service to Hargeisa and Djibouti.

With an increase in mining operations to Tanzania, Astral said it has increased the Nairobi-to-Mwanza route to three times each week. Additionally, Astral continues to operate weekly services from Nairobi to Dar-es-salaam, Zanzibar, Moroni, Entebbe, Kigali and Pemba, in addition to London Stansted and Liege, Belgium.

Charter flights have increased from Astral’s Nairobi hub to Bangui and Sanaa in Yemen providing relief related goods.  “We have been overwhelmed with the demand for aid and relief cargoes from Nairobi and Djibouti to Sanaa, in Yemen, and have performed in excess of a dozen flights already,” said Collins Oloo, charter manager.  “Astral will continue to offer on-demand charters with sufficient capacity on its fleet.”

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