I had arrived on my connecting flight from Johannesburg. I had about 1:30 hr connection time so I started to make my way to my next gate as it was already showing as open.
Nairobi airport is a circular structure and there seemed to be just one long corridor around the whole airport. There were a number of shops around this corridor but they didn't seem to very particularly of a high quality.
Some of the gates, including mine, required passengers to pass through a security check. This was slightly chaotic as some people were just trying to skip becauses passengers in the other direction didn't require a check. After a short wait I was thorough and continued on my way.
I guess this side of the airport was for international destinations.
I was travelling from gate 19, which was located after a ticket check and had a large seating area with a view of the aircraft.
Here's my shiny new 787-8 :)
Boarding came around and economy passengers were boarded via seat rows, those at the back first. The air bridge provided another view of the plane.
This time I hadn't managed to get a window, but at least I wasn't sitting in a middle seat, instead I was sat on the aisle of the middle three seats. This is what I was missing out on.
I took my seat which had a decent amount of leg room
And a nice large screen
The seat pocket contained a magazine, duty free magzine and the safety card.
A few shots of the cabin showing off the lighting
So we set off towards the runway while the safety demonstration was played as on the previous flight on the IFE system.
When we got to the runway we stopped. The captain came on the speakers and explained that a passenger wasn't feeling well and that we had to head back to the terminal. So back we went, the passenger was let off by which time we had lost our take off slot and had to wait a little bit for the next one. Unfortunately, all this ended up delaying us by about an hour.
Finally we were up and shortly after the meal service was begun. I got my special veggie meal first consisting of a croissant ad jam (not the fluffiest I ever tasted) and also a cooked breakfast of beans, potatoes, tomato and spinach. Followed by some fruit. It was ok, but nothing special.
After breakfast I treated myself to a little sleep followed by a film from the nice selection on offer (much better than the outbound KLM flight). I could even see this screen when the seat on front was reclined due to its large size and good quality picture from all angles.
At some point the flight attendants darkened all the windows automatically for passengers to sleep. Here you can see the windows in a number of darkened shades.
We were provided with a small snack of nuts in the middle of the flight.
And a further meal a little bit later.
This tasted slightly better than the breakfast, but by this point I was getting a bit sick of this fruit which I'd had on the previous flight, for breakfast and now here - sometimes a bit of variation and a proper dessert is nice.
The flight was pretty pleasant but rather uneventful. Finally we landed in AMS and I wished my dreamliner goodbye
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Verdict
Kenya Airways
7.9/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Meal/catering6.0
Nairobi - NBO
5.2/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services4.0
Cleanliness7.0
Amsterdam - AMS
6.8/10
Efficiency7.0
Access5.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness8.0
Conclusion
I had a pleasant flight in Kenya's new 787. I was impressed by the good range of films on offer and the nice cabin. The food could have been a little more interesting though.
I'd choose Kenya over KLM on this route if I were travelling to South Africa again despite the extra leg.
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Thank you for the report ! Nairobi airport looks quite functional but definitely not as appealing as other more modern terminals. Nice views of the cabin and different light configurations, as well as the diffrent shades one can get from the windows. I'm not a huge fan of the idea that the cabin crew can dim all the windows together, and I've seen quite a few negative reviews from passengers complaining that they weren't necessarily helping when you need to catch up from jetlag... Altough in this case the time zone is the same so no problems. The food looks quite boring, but this is the vegetarian option and maybe I would have liked the basic options best. Overall, as you said you preferred this experience above KLM's, it seems to alter the prejudices westerners have on African airlines in general.
Yes Nairobi wouldn't be somewhere where you would like to have long connection, otherwise it's perfectly fine. Regarding the windows, I'm not sure whether you can open them again if you want. Many people seemed to keep them dark for most of the flight but others were changing them. Perhaps they darken them as standard but you can change it again? Or they might might have released the controls later on. Yes jet leg wouldn't be a problem here as the time difference between NBO and AMS is only 1 hour. It's nice to travel so far and not have to deal with that. Maybe I should go to africa more often - good airlines and no jet lag!
Too bad you did not get a window seat during a daytime flight, but you must have been pretty exhausted! Do you remember the load? i flew this leg a couple of times with the rear section of the aircraft always empty which was nice to enjoy a flat bed ...
Some of the gates, including mine, required passengers to pass through a security check. => yes to access from T1BCD to the brand new T1A.
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113 reviews
7 Comments
Nairobi airport looks quite functional but definitely not as appealing as other more modern terminals.
Nice views of the cabin and different light configurations, as well as the diffrent shades one can get from the windows. I'm not a huge fan of the idea that the cabin crew can dim all the windows together, and I've seen quite a few negative reviews from passengers complaining that they weren't necessarily helping when you need to catch up from jetlag... Altough in this case the time zone is the same so no problems.
The food looks quite boring, but this is the vegetarian option and maybe I would have liked the basic options best.
Overall, as you said you preferred this experience above KLM's, it seems to alter the prejudices westerners have on African airlines in general.
Regarding the windows, I'm not sure whether you can open them again if you want. Many people seemed to keep them dark for most of the flight but others were changing them. Perhaps they darken them as standard but you can change it again? Or they might might have released the controls later on. Yes jet leg wouldn't be a problem here as the time difference between NBO and AMS is only 1 hour. It's nice to travel so far and not have to deal with that. Maybe I should go to africa more often - good airlines and no jet lag!
NBO didn't look like the most appealing airport visually but does the trick.
The seat pitch looks decent from your pictures.
Catering seems like meh in my eyes but not too horrendous.
See you on the next one!
That's right, NBO seemed perfectly ok just nothing special and the meal was pretty average.
The 787 was nice to fly in, I hope I get to fly in one again soon :)
Once again the service provided is good and meal are served at appropriate times.
I understand that given your experience on KL on way to JNB you'd now rather fly with KQ whenever possible.
Yes the service was good. I wouldn't hesitate to fly Kenya again if I were heading to that part of the world again
Too bad you did not get a window seat during a daytime flight, but you must have been pretty exhausted!
Do you remember the load? i flew this leg a couple of times with the rear section of the aircraft always empty which was nice to enjoy a flat bed ...
Some of the gates, including mine, required passengers to pass through a security check. => yes to access from T1BCD to the brand new T1A.
Thanks for posting another good FR!
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