AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) will launch flights to Africa with the debut of services between Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta on November 15, 2024. As first reported by AeroRoutes, the four-times-per-week roundtrips will be operated by the LCC's A330-300. The Malaysian Aviation Commission has granted the airline permission to operate up to seven roundtrips per week from October. However, no such application has yet been published by the Kenyan government.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, no scheduled passenger airlines presently operate on the Malaysia - Kenya country pair. The only passenger operators flying between Malaysia and the African continent is Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International), which flies in via Singapore Changi, and Air Mauritius (MK, Mauritius), which connects Kuala Lumpur with Mauritius twice per week. AirAsia X briefly served Mauritius in 2016.
The Nairobi flights, which AirAsia X has yet to officially announce, will be among the longest in its network at 7,220 kilometres. AirAsia's present network extends northwest to Almaty International, northeast to Sapporo Chitose, and south to Melbourne Tullamarine.
The Malaysian authorities have also granted permission for AirAsia X to operate fifth-freedom flights between Taipei Taoyuan - Osaka Kansai, and Taipei - Fukuoka seven and four times per week, respectively, from this month.
