Kenya Airways (KQ) has secured a second landing slot at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airport for international passenger traffic, allowing it to launch a second daily flight to the city, days after its arch-rival Emirates added a third Nairobi-Dubai service.
The national flag carrier is set to more than double its capacity on the Nairobi-Dubai route, with an additional daily flight set to commence on September 1, as competition intensifies on the lucrative route.
This comes just days after Emirates, one of the few carriers that operates direct flights between Nairobi and Dubai, added a third daily flight, highlighting growing demand on the route.
KQ’s chief commercial and customer officer Julius Thairu told Business Daily the decision to add a second flight on the route followed receipt of regulatory approvals, and was driven by demand.
“We are currently operating 7 weekly (daily) flights and growing to 14 weekly (double daily) flights from September 1. Frequency increases are subject to demand, aircraft availability, operational readiness, slot allocation, and the required regulatory approvals,” Mr Thairu said in an email response.
Sources familiar with the issue had told Business Daily that KQ has unsuccessfully sought an additional landing slot in Dubai for years, despite Emirates and three other airlines from the United Arab Emirates having multiple landing slots in Nairobi and Mombasa.
Other UAE-based airlines flying to Nairobi and Mombasa are Etihad, which operates direct flights to and from Abu Dhabi; flyDubai, which flies to Nairobi and Mombasa from Dubai; and Air Arabia, which flies directly to and from Sharjah.
KQ had protested the unfair treatment in Dubai, which violated the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Kenya and the UAE and gave Emirates an unfair competitive advantage on the route, sources said.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and the State Department for Aviation and Aerospace Development did not respond to requests for comment on the unfairness allegations.
With the addition of a third daily flight, served with a 350-seater Boeing 777, Emirates increased its daily capacity on the Nairobi-Dubai service to over 900 passengers, dwarfing KQ’s 147 by far.
Currently, KQ uses a Boeing 737-8, with a 147 passengers capacity for the daily Dubai flights. Mr Thairu did not disclose which equipment will be used on the second flight, but it is suspected it could deploy the recently returned 400-seater Boeing 777 or a second Boeing 737-8.
“Any decision to add frequencies is made after a full commercial and operational assessment, including aircraft availability, crew planning, airport slots, passenger demand, and network connectivity,” Mr Thairu said.
Dubai is among the most lucrative destinations to fly to from Nairobi, making it an important route for KQ. Despite the disruptions due to the Iran war, Dubai was among the best performing destinations from Nairobi, with a total capacity of 248,802 passengers flying out of Nairobi between January and June 2026, according to data by AeroTrail.
In June, Dubai was the second best performing route, with a total capacity of 51,149 flying out of Nairobi, second only to Nairobi-Mombasa, which is Kenya’s busiest domestic route, served by over 5 airlines.
In 2025, KQ earned Sh9.7 billion from its Dubai flights, accounting for 6 percent of its total turnover, highlighting how important the market is to the flag carrier.
