Kenyan budget carrier, Jambojet, has set its sights on inaugurating international flights to eleven destinations by December this year.

Currently, the low-cost airline, which is owned by Kenya Airways and launched in 2014, operates local flights from Nairobi to other destinations such as Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Malindi, Diani and Malindi.

The Kenya Gazette, published May 26, announced that Jambojet has officially been granted authorisation to operate scheduled international air services to and from:  Kampala in Uganda; Addis Ababa in Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Kilimajaro and Mwanza in Tanzania; Kigaili in Rwanda; Juba in South Sudan; Bujumbura in Burundi; Hargeisa and Mogadishu in Somalia; Goma and Kisangan in Democratic Republic of Congo; the Comoros; and Lilongwe and Blantyre in Malawi.

The license has been granted for one year, with effect from May, 4.

In order to meet its domestic customer demand and the upcoming international routes, Jambojet has leased a 78-seater Bombardier Q400 from Ilyushin Finance Corporation, with a second aircraft scheduled for delivery in November.

The budget carrier acquired the new aircraft from the Moscow based leasing company as part of its expansion programme.

Jambojet CEO, Willem Hondius, recently received the new aircraft at the Bombardier’s factory in Toronto, Canada.

Hondius said: “We hope to get our air service license soon. The moment we receive the second aircraft we will be ready to launch operations to our regional routes.”

“We hope to have between eight and 10 aircraft in the next five years. We shall keep to one aircraft type to keep maintenance costs low,” Hondius said.

He added: “With the new planes, our reliability will improve significantly. Whatever happened last December should never happen again.”