Madagascar/Kenya - report

Lift off for Madagascar's links to east Africa

by Billy Head

Article published on the 2008-11-04 Latest update 2008-11-04 14:55 TU

Ready for boarding
(Photo: Billy Head)

Despite the world economic downturn, high fuel prices and post-election violence in Kenya, a new flight-route opens this week to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. A code-share agreement between Kenya Airways and Air Madagascar, flights will now connect Nairobi and Antananarivo three times a week.

The inaugural flight leaves Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi at 8am this Saturday, local time.

Avoiding Mount Kilimanjaro the plane strikes out to sea over Zanzibar. Clouds then signal approaching coastline. Madagascar's red soil stains the sea around the northern city of Majunga, where flight KQ 464 makes landfall.

Madagascar's soil turns the sea red
(Photo: Billy Head)

Forty minutes later and rice fields, rivers and red-brick houses dot the final approach to the Malagasy capital.

On the tarmac in Antananarivo, there is delay for a ceremonial shower from two fire hoses. Singers then welcome passengers and dignitaries. Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni joins the dancing before speeches and the plane's swift return to Nairobi.

Opening a new flight route in the present economic climate might seem a bold move. But Madagascar's rise as a new frontier in mineral extraction is catching on.

"There's nowhere else like it in the world at the moment," one foreign mining entrepreneur recently told RFI.

Kenya Airways CEO enjoys the moment
(Photo: Billy Head)

Five thousand kilometres of tropical coastline; desert, rainforest and mountains are also of appeal to tourists. Separated from the rest of the world for millions of years, 80 per cent of the island's plants and animals are endemic. Amongst them lurks a pygmy chameleon, an exploding palm tree and seventy species of lemur.

Africa's new link with Madagascar is already of interest in Europe. Many of the tour-operators and journalists on board Saturday's flight had connected from London, from where the average cost of travel to Madagascar is now sharply cut.

The implications for African tourism are also far-reaching. A detour via Paris for traffic between Madagascar and much of Francophone Africa is no longer needed.

Goodbyes
(Photo: Billy Head)

And a new connection with Anglophone Africa via Nairobi may mean big changes for the island.