Matiba among stranded passengers as KQ cancels flights
By HILARY KIMUYU, @hilarykimuyuFlight cancellations by troubled national carrier Kenya Airways on Sunday affected hundreds of passengers among them retired politician Kenneth Matiba.
KQ posted an update on their official Twitter handle telling passengers that there was an imminent delay due to technical reasons but added that only one flight was canceled and not 24 as had been reported by other media outlets.
“We regret to inform you that your flight KQA8604 2nd Oct is facing an imminent delay due to technical reasons. Next update on departure timings will be in 40 minutes. Inconvenience caused are highly regretted,” read one of the messages.
We confirm that all our flights planned for today are operational except for KQ436/7
— Kenya Airways (@KenyaAirways) October 2, 2016
Stranded passengers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport shared their frustration on social media
“Jambo Jet flight number KQA8604 was scheduled to depart at 11am for Mombasa. Now delayed by 3 hours over unspecified technical problem. Earliest plane might depart is 2pm,” one passenger wrote on Facebook.
MECHANICAL HITCH
Information on the ground at JKIA indicated that only one flight (Jambo Jet) had a mechanical hitch since Saturday and has affected a number of passengers.
However, Jambo Jet sales and ticketing attendants are selling tickets to Mombasa with the earliest flight scheduled to leave at 9:40pm on Sunday.
A passenger held up in Mombasa said that KQ has notified them small aircrafts will be sent to carry them in batches of 37.
Sunday’s delay was the latest incident that the troubled airline has faced in the recent past.
In August passengers of a local low-cost airline were stranded at JKIA for seven hours under unclear circumstances.
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