UAENBO

KQ · hub Nairobi (NBO) · SkyTeam

Hand carry on Kenya Airways

Nairobi for East Africa, with onward links to Kampala, Kigali and Dar es Salaam.

Ask for a routing All airlines we fly

RouteUAE → NBO

Typical flying time4h 41m

Distance≈3,550 km

Typical outcomeSame-Day

One person beats a parcel networkon Kenya Airways

The freight chain is not slow because aircraft are slow, it is slow because a consignment waits at every handover. A courier removes the queues, not the kilometres.

OnBoard CourierOne person. One seat. One signature.

CollectedIn the cabin Delivered in on Kenya Airways, same day or next morning

Conventional air freightA parcel in a system, every handover is a queue.

Drop-offAcceptance cut-off Build-upFlight Break-downCustoms Delivered, day 3 to 5

0h24h48h72h96h+

When a seat beats a parcel, the full comparison →

Firm quote in 15 minutes

Tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.

Five short questions. A dispatcher replies with a named departure, the delivery hour and one fixed price, day and night.

One named courier from collection to signature
Customs cleared in person on arrival
Licensed UAE company, proper VAT invoices

Operational route facts

Last reviewed: August 2026, carrier line-ups and frequencies are indicative and change with seasonal schedules; your quote is priced on the day’s actual flights.

How the flying actually works

Non-stop links into Nairobi (NBO) from the Gulf departure bank, the quote names the exact flight and day-of-week validity:

DXBEmirates (daily or better)

DOHQatar Airways (daily or better)

DXBKenya Airways (daily)

Alternative gateways nearby

JROKilimanjaro International, Kilimanjaro · ≈235 km straight-line · connection gateway

When the primary airport’s timing loses, a late bank, a curfew, a fog morning, the quote compares these alternates with the true road leg included, and names the winner.

220countries and territories on the desk

500+airports a courier can be booked into

15 minfrom your message to a firm price

24/7the operations centre is awake

Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for on Kenya Airways

A hand-carry is only as fast as the next departure. The desk watches three boards at once and books the one that lands first, then holds the one that leaves next.

Emirates

The night bank out of Terminal 3

Between one and four in the morning Emirates pushes back a wave of widebodies from Terminal 3 that reach Europe before the first meeting and Asia by the afternoon. For on Kenya Airways that wave is the reason a courier confirmed at eight in the evening is still delivering the next day.

Widebody only, non-stop to 140 plus cities

flydubai

The short sectors, several times a day

From Terminal 2 flydubai runs the one to five hour sectors: the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa, the Balkans, the subcontinent. Where a widebody leaves once a day, flydubai often leaves three times, which turns a missed slot into a ninety minute delay rather than a lost day.

Frequency is the fallback

Etihad

Abu Dhabi as the second runway

Ninety minutes down the E11, Etihad leaves from Zayed International with its own bank of departures and, for the United States, immigration cleared before boarding. When the Dubai departure for on Kenya Airways is gone, the desk looks at Abu Dhabi before it looks at tomorrow.

US preclearance at AUH

The desk holds no allegiance to a carrier. The booking goes to whichever board puts a courier at on Kenya Airways first, at a fare the quote can carry.

on Kenya Airways: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.

Five questions, one fixed price, a named flight. The desk answers within 15 minutes, day and night, and you decide.

Price it now How it works

Kenya Airways in the network the desk measures

Computed on 2026-09-07 from AeroDataBox scheduled route statistics. The desk holds departure schedules for 571 airports, and for the KQ code that yields 49 city pairs across 45 of them. It is a measured sample of the published timetable and not the whole of it. Frequencies move with the season, and a quote is priced on the flights running the day you ask.

45airports on this carrier

33countries and territories reached

49scheduled city pairs held

150average daily flights across them

The schedule the desk holds carries the KQ code on 49 city pairs, reaching 45 airports in 33 countries and territories. Some of those sectors are flown by Kenya Airways and some are sold under its code and flown by a partner, which is how the published timetable states it and how a booking has to be read. 66.7 per cent of those airports sit on African time zones, and the next largest block is on Indian Ocean time zones.

The longest sector held for the carrier is New York (JFK) to Nairobi (NBO) at about 11,837 km, and the shortest is Nairobi (NBO) to Nairobi (WIL) at about 13 km. 6 of the 49 pairs run past 5,000 km, so the carrier carries a courier across a continent on some sectors and shuttles on the rest. The airport that appears most often on those pairs is Nairobi (NBO), on 39 of them, which is 79.6 per cent of everything held under this code.

The thickest sector under the code is Mombasa (MBA) to Nairobi (NBO) at about 21.9 movements a day, which across a full day is roughly one every 1.1 hours. On a sector at that cadence a missed departure costs a wait rather than a night. 12 of the 49 pairs run four or more times a day and 19 run once a day or less. The second figure is the one that matters when a consignment leaves the factory late, because on those sectors the desk will quote a different carrier rather than promise an hour it cannot hold. After Nairobi (NBO) the code leans on Accra (ACC) on 3, Abidjan (ABJ) on 2, Nampula (APL) on 2 pairs respectively, and those are the airports a dispatcher looks at second when the first routing is full.

The sectors that carry the KQ code most often

From	To	Country	Flights a day	km	Open it
Mombasa MBA	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	21.9	423	plan this
Bangkok BKK	Guangzhou CAN	China	14.7	1,706	the pair page
Kisumu KIS	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	10.1	280	plan this
Kampala EBB	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	8.7	521	the pair page
Nairobi NBO	Zanzibar ZNZ	Tanzania	7.5	602	the pair page
Dar es Salaam DAR	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	7.1	668	the pair page
Kigali KGL	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	6.3	758	the pair page
Dubai DXB	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	5.9	3,559	plan this
Harare HRE	Lusaka LUN	Zambia	5.6	403	plan this
Arusha JRO	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	5.4	235	plan this
Jo'anna JNB	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	4.4	2,912	the pair page
Abidjan ABJ	Dakar DSS	Senegal	4.3	1,778	plan this

The 12 sectors the KQ code appears on most often, out of 49. Flights a day is the average daily scheduled movement on the busier of the two directions, as held on 2026-09-07. The schedule lists a code against a sector whether the carrier operates it or sells it, so read this as where the code can be booked. Distances are great circle, computed from the published coordinates of the two airports.

Where KQ meets the UAE gateways

Kenya Airways is one of the carriers a courier can board without leaving the Emirates. The desk holds 3 pairs under this code touching Dubai (DXB), Sharjah (SHJ), so a booking can start at a UAE counter and stay on one ticket to the delivery city.

UAE airport	To	Country	Flights a day	km	Open it
Dubai DXB	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	5.9	3,559	plan this
Sharjah SHJ	Nairobi NBO	Kenya	1.9	3,575	plan this
Sharjah SHJ	Djibouti City JIB	Djibouti	0.6	2,009	plan this

Night restrictions on the airports the KQ code uses

A hand carry is bought for the hours it saves, and an airport that will not take a movement after a certain hour can spend those hours back. 5 of the 45 airports this code is booked through carry a restriction the desk holds in writing, checked 2026-09-07. Exemptions and seasonal variations exist, and the desk confirms the position with the airport or the carrier before it books.

Dubai (DXB), night operations. Operates around the clock. The overnight departure bank to Europe leaves between roughly 01:00 and 04:00 local, which is what makes a same day European delivery possible.
London (LGW), night restrictions. Night movements are capped between 23:30 and 06:00 local under a seasonal quota.
Amsterdam (AMS), night restrictions. Night operations between 23:00 and 07:00 local are limited by an annual cap and runway rules.
London (LHR), night restrictions. A night quota system limits movements between 23:30 and 06:00 local. Very few scheduled departures in that window.
Paris (CDG), night restrictions. Scheduled movements between midnight and 05:00 local are limited to a fixed annual number of slots.

Published lanes that carry the KQ code

The site publishes a page for 346 courier lanes. Kenya Airways appears in the schedule on 3 of them, and the one it flies most is Dubai to Nairobi at about 5.9 movements a day. That overlap is the honest test of whether a carrier is useful to this desk rather than merely famous.

Dubai to Nairobi, about 5.9 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 3,559 km.
Nairobi to Amsterdam, about 2.9 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 6,677 km.
Sharjah to Nairobi, about 1.9 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 3,575 km.

The countries the KQ code opens

Of the 33 countries and territories reached, 25 are reached at a single airport, which for a courier means one airport of entry and a road leg for everything else in that country. The deepest is Kenya with 4 airports on this code. The country desk for Kenya sets out the customs practice, the working hours and the road legs behind these airports.

Kenya (4 airports), Zambia (3 airports), Tanzania (3 airports), Democratic Republic of the Congo (2 airports), South Africa (2 airports), Zimbabwe (2 airports), United Arab Emirates (2 airports), United Kingdom (2 airports), Mozambique (1 airports), South Sudan (1 airports).

Where to go next on the KQ network

Each of the 45 airports above has its own atlas entry with the full destination list, and each of the 49 sectors can be opened in the calculator with the flying time, the distance and the delivery hour worked out. Start with the atlas entry for Nairobi (NBO), the route calculator with Dubai to NBO already filled in, the carrier index for the other 236 airlines the desk lists and the airport atlas itself.

Where Kenya Airways fits in an OBC routing

Kenya Airways is based in Kenya and operates from Nairobi (NBO) as a member of SkyTeam. For us a carrier is not a brand preference, it is a departure time. We book Kenya Airways when it has the next seat that gets your consignment there, and we combine it freely with any other airline on the same routing because we hold no alliance membership and no exclusive contract.

Cabin baggage reality

As a full-service carrier the cabin baggage allowance is usually workable for a hand-carry, and a premium cabin adds both allowance and rebooking priority. We still confirm the limit for the specific flight and aircraft type before quoting.

Connections

Where a single Kenya Airways sector does not reach the destination, the courier connects, and stays with the consignment on every leg, so it is never handed over in transit.

How we book

An ordinary passenger seat on the open market, in the courier's own name, matching the passport exactly. Premium cabins when the consignment or the schedule justifies it.

Customs is separate

The airline moves the aircraft; the courier declares the goods. Entry rules are per country, not per carrier, see our country guides.

Why frequency matters

A carrier with three rotations a day turns a missed departure into a short wait. That is worth more on a deadline than a marginally faster aircraft.

Independence

No alliance, no exclusivity, no volume commitment. The schedule decides, not a supplier agreement.

Destinations and markets this carrier serves for us

Airline timetables change constantly, so rather than reprint a schedule that will be wrong next month, here is what is useful: the markets where Kenya Airways regularly appears in our routings, and the pages that describe those lanes in detail. If you need a specific city on Kenya Airways, ask and we will check the live schedule.

Country page: Kenya →Nairobi Mombasa (MBA)

Markets in Middle East & Africa:

United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Qatar Kuwait Oman Bahrain Jordan Lebanon Iraq Israel All countries →

On board courier vs air cargo

Whether the seat is on Kenya Airways or any other carrier, this is what a courier changes compared with the hold of the same aircraft.

✓ On board courier

A person in a seat

Leaves on the next available flight, often within hours of your call, 24/7.
One named courier holds the consignment from collection to signature.
Travels in the aircraft cabin wherever the airline, cargo classification and security rules permit it; the transport configuration is confirmed before booking.
No warehouse, no consolidation window, no overnight sort.
Customs cleared in person, questions answered at the counter, immediately.
Same-day delivery is realistic on most sectors out of the UAE.
Built for high-value, fragile, temperature-critical goods and originals.
Proof of delivery with signature, ID check and a photograph within minutes.
A human being you can call at any point of the journey.

✕ Air cargo & express freight

A parcel in a system

Waits for the next consolidation and space allocation, not for you.
Passes through many hands: hub, build-up, ramp, break-down, delivery agent.
Rides in the hold, frequently sitting in a warehouse overnight.
Each handover is a queue, and each queue is where hours disappear.
Cleared in a batch by a broker; one query can idle the shipment for a day.
Next day at best on most lanes, two to three days if it is held.
Chain of custody is a scan history, not a person with the box.
Signed for by whoever happens to be at the door.
Right answer for heavy, bulky or non-urgent freight, and we will say so.

To be straight about it: air cargo is not a bad service, it is a different one. It moves weight cheaply and it does that extremely well. A hand-carry buys back hours, and it is worth paying for exactly when an hour of delay costs more than a seat on a plane, which is the case far more often than most shippers assume, and far less often than most courier companies claim.

The full comparison, with costs →

Questions about flying Kenya Airways

What clients and couriers ask when they see this carrier on an assignment.

01Are you an agent or partner of Kenya Airways?

No. OnBoard Courier is an independent courier management company. We buy ordinary passenger seats on the open market and hold no agency, contract or partnership with any airline. Airline names and marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the routes these assignments travel on.

02Will my consignment definitely fly Kenya Airways?

Only if that is genuinely the fastest option for your deadline. We book whichever carrier departs next with a seat and a cabin allowance that fits.

03How much can a courier carry on Kenya Airways?

As a full-service carrier the cabin baggage allowance is usually workable for a hand-carry, and a premium cabin adds both allowance and rebooking priority. We confirm the exact allowance for the specific flight before quoting.

04Can I fly as a courier on Kenya Airways?

If you are in our network, yes, couriers fly whichever airline the assignment requires. We book and pay the ticket and pay a fee per completed assignment.

Need a routing that uses Kenya Airways?

Send the two ends and the deadline. We will check the live schedule across every carrier and come back with the fastest realistic option.

Request a quote → Browse countries

Why a courier on Kenya Airways rather than a cargo booking

It is worth being precise about what an on board courier is, because the phrase gets used for three different products. It is not a faster parcel service, it is not a premium express label, and it is not a charter. It is a person who buys a seat on a scheduled flight and carries your consignment in the cabin, in their own custody, from the moment they collect it to the moment somebody signs for it.

What clients are actually buying is the removal of every handover. In a normal air freight movement a consignment changes hands seven or eight times: shipper, forwarder, handling agent, ramp, aircraft, ramp, break-bulk, broker, delivery agent. Each handover is a queue and each queue is where hours disappear. A courier reduces that number to one, collection, and one more, delivery.

What that adds up to for Nairobi is a service you should use when the deadline is real and ignore when it is not. We would rather tell you to send it as express freight and keep the relationship than sell you a courier for a box that could have travelled overnight anyway.

How an assignment routed over Nairobi runs

From the first message to the delivery signature, a Nairobi assignment passes through six stages. None of them are automated away, and none of them involve your consignment sitting in a warehouse overnight.

Minute 0 to 15

You tell us what it is

Everything starts with an honest description of the goods. We ask what it is, what it costs, who is receiving it in Nairobi and when it must be in their hands. Vague answers produce vague quotes and, far worse, customs problems at the other end.

Minute 15 to 45

We screen it and price it

Screening comes before pricing, always. Shipper, consignee, commodity, end use, route. In parallel we check the cabin allowance for the specific flights that could work to Nairobi, because an allowance that fits on one aircraft type does not automatically fit on another.

Hour 1 to 3

A named courier is assigned and booked

The matching runs against couriers who are available now, whose passport and visas suit the route to Nairobi, and whose delivery history fits the value of the consignment. The ticket is then bought in the courier's own name, matching their passport exactly, a booking in anything but the traveller's legal name is refused at the gate.

Hour 2 to 4

Collection, sealing and documentation

Collection is a documented handover, not a pickup. Identity checked, contents verified against the invoice, seal applied and numbered, photographs taken, and the file opened. From that point one named person holds the consignment until someone in Nairobi signs for it.

In flight

The consignment stays in the cabin

Once airborne, the job is simply not to let go. The consignment stays in the cabin for every sector; where the routing to Nairobi connects, the courier remains airside with it rather than clearing and re-entering.

On arrival

Customs, then a signature

The courier declares the goods through the red channel at Nairobi (NBO), answers questions in person and, where the category or the value warrants it, meets a customs broker we have already briefed. The handover is against signature, printed name and an identification reference, timestamped and with photographs where you have asked for them.

The paperwork that decides how fast Nairobi goes

Nothing delays a hand-carry as reliably as a document that says something different from the box. This is what we prepare with you before the courier leaves, and why each piece matters at Nairobi (NBO).

Duty, tax and who pays it

Import duty and VAT or GST in Kenya are the consignee's cost unless you have agreed otherwise in writing, and the terms should be settled before departure. It is a small conversation before the flight and an expensive one after it.

Legalisation and attestation

Documents that must be legalised, apostilled or attested to be valid in Kenya are checked before the courier collects them. A perfectly delivered document that lacks the right stamp has not solved anybody's problem.

Tariff classification

The HS code decides the duty, the permits and sometimes whether the goods may enter Kenya at all. We would rather agree the classification with you before departure than watch an officer choose one for us, because the officer's choice is the one that stands.

Temperature and dangerous goods

Dry ice quantities, lithium battery watt-hours, biological substance classification and packing group all have hard limits for a passenger cabin. Some consignments to Kenya can travel exactly as they are; some need repacking; some cannot fly with a passenger at all, and we say so rather than finding out at security.

ATA Carnet and temporary admission

Where goods enter Kenya temporarily and leave again, demonstration equipment, exhibition pieces, professional gear, a carnet avoids duty entirely and gives the courier a document the officer recognises immediately. It has to be issued before departure; there is no retrospective version.

Commercial invoice

The document customs actually reads. It needs a plain description of the goods, the real value, the currency, the terms of sale and the full names and addresses of both parties. “Samples, no commercial value” is not a customs value and it is the fastest way to turn a twenty-minute clearance at Nairobi (NBO) into an afternoon.

What a Nairobi courier actually costs, and why

We do not publish a price list, because a fixed table would be a lie: the same box on the same route costs differently at four hours' notice than at two days'. What we can do is be exact about which levers move the number, so nothing in the quote is a surprise.

How much notice you give us

A seat bought four hours before departure costs what a seat bought four hours before departure costs. Nothing about that is a courier margin, it is simply the airline's pricing curve, and it is the single largest variable in a Nairobi quote.

What is always included

Ticket, courier fee, airport transfers, the hotel where an overnight is unavoidable, the documentation work and our operations desk being awake for the whole journey. What is not included is duty and tax in Kenya, and anything you ask for after departure that changes the routing.

Visas and positioning

If the routing to Kenya needs a visthe courier does not hold, either we assign a courier who does or we position one, and a global network exists precisely so that the answer is usually the first option rather than the second.

The ground legs at both ends

Collection in the Emirates and delivery beyond Nairobi (NBO) are part of the job, not an extra. Where the delivery address is a long drive from the airport, or a second domestic sector is needed, we price it in from the start instead of stopping at arrivals.

Declared value and insurance

All-risk cover is priced on the declared value of the goods, and it is the number that matters, airline liability under the Montreal Convention is a fraction of what most courier consignments are worth. Understating the value to save a little on cover is a false economy the first time anything goes wrong.

Distance and sector count

A direct flight to Nairobi is one ticket and one risk. A two-sector routing is cheaper on paper and more expensive in practice, because every connection is a chance to lose the consignment's schedule. We quote the routing we would actually fly, not the cheapest one that technically arrives.

Every quote we send is fixed before departure and contains the flight, the courier's fee, transfers and, where an overnight cannot be avoided, the hotel. The things that can change it afterwards are the things you control: a change of destination, a change of goods, or a delay at your end that costs the booked flight. Duty and tax in Kenya sit with the consignee unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

Dubai skyline at dusk — From the pearl divers to the departure gates, this coast has always moved what the world was waiting for.
The story of the Gulf

What can go wrong on a Nairobi assignment, and what we do about it

Every operator has these problems. The difference is whether the answer was decided in advance or invented at the counter. This is our answer to each of them, written down before you need it.

The consignment is larger than described

Measured at collection, not at the gate. If it will not fit a locker we buy a seat for it there and then and tell you the revised number before the courier moves, rather than improvising at check-in.

Customs asks a question

A person can answer it. That single fact is most of the difference between a hand-carry and a cargo booking: a query at Nairobi (NBO) that would idle a shipment for a day gets resolved at the counter in minutes because the person who knows what is in the box is standing there.

The courier is refused boarding

Almost always a document problem: a passport too close to expiry, a missing transit visa, a name on the ticket that does not match the passport. Every one of those is checked at assignment, and it is checked again before the courier leaves for the airport.

The flight is cancelled

Not a crisis, a routine. Before the courier leaves for the airport we already know the next two departures that could carry the consignment to Nairobi, on any carrier, from any of the seven UAE airports. Rebooking is a phone call, not a rescue operation.

The consignee is unreachable

We confirm the receiving party and a working phone number before the courier departs, and we agree a fallback in Nairobi, a second authorised person, or a secure hold, so that a delivery does not fail because someone went into a meeting.

The connection is missed

This is why we build routings above the minimum connection time rather than at it. Where a connection is genuinely tight, the courier holds the consignment airside and takes the next available service rather than clearing into a country they were only passing through.

How jobs like this actually run

Illustrative cases, patterns from daily OBC work, details generalised for client confidentiality.

MediaLHR → DXB

A graded master drive for a premiere, no copies allowed to travel unaccompanied.

Post-house12:15

In the cabin16:20

Screening room01:30 +1

✓ Premiere ran from the original.

YachtingNCE → DXB

A regatta winch motor between two race days.

Chandlery13:20

Evening non-stop18:05

Marina berth03:10 +1

✓ Boat on the start line.

EnergyDOH → IAH

A turbine control card for a plant running on reduced load.

Handover Doha07:10

Non-stop08:55

Site gate Houston17:30

✓ Unit back to full output the same night.

Times are typical for these lanes; every job gets its own named flight and timeline before you confirm.

How it moves

The next flight out, not the next batch

Your consignment is booked on a named flight, boarding within hours.

Join the OBC network, become an on board courier

Every route on this site runs because somebody was willing to get on the plane with it. We are recruiting vetted couriers worldwide: we book and pay the flight, cover transfers and a hotel where an overnight is needed, and pay a fee for every completed assignment, stated in the offer before you accept it. You decide when you are available.

Flights paid
Fee per assignment
Assignments worldwide
You choose your dates
Training in our Academy

Join the OBC network now → See the open position What does an OBC earn?

Estimate your price, live, before you talk to anyone

An indicative calculation on the OBC-One pattern: airline seat, courier duty, hotel where the routing needs one, transfers and handling. Pick any of the airports we serve, adjust the settings, the breakdown updates as you go. Nothing here is a binding price; the airline fare on the day decides the final number.

Departure hub

Destination airport

What is travelling? Weight: 5 kg More than 23 kg, second courier Service

How urgent?

Indicative total ,

Happy with the estimate? Send it, done.

This sends exactly what you configured above, nothing to retype, no commitment. Indicative figures only; a person confirms the real fare and timing.

Aircraft wing above the clouds — A runway in the desert became the world’s busiest international airport in one generation.
The story of DXB

Get a quote for this route

Tell us what has to move and where it has to be. You get a fixed price and a departure time back, usually within 15 minutes, day or night.

Request a quote

Answered by a person, 24/7. No commitment. One form, one reply.

Origin airport

Destination airport

Shipment type

Ready date & time

Who is booking

Company

What does the company do?

Your name

Phone

Email address

What is in the consignment?

Request received. We reply by email from bookings [at] onboardcourier [dot] ae, usually within 15 minutes.

Confidential · no commitment · 24/7 availability

I need to send something

Book hand-carry delivery from the UAE to anywhere in the world, and follow it in real time. Same-day departure available.

Book a shipment → Client login

I want to fly as a courier

We pay the ticket and a fee per completed assignment. You choose when you are available.

Apply as an OBC → See the open position

Where to go from here

Hand carry on Kenya Airways is one chapter of a larger network. OnBoard Courier moves time-critical consignments with vetted on-board couriers departing 24/7 from all seven UAE airports to 584 destinations across 219 countries. Choose the service that fits, classic hand-carry, AOG for grounded aircraft, medical and pharma, next flight out or high-value goods, then check entry requirements and customs by country and how an assignment actually runs, minute by minute.

Prefer to compare first? Read when a seat beats a parcel network, browse the industries we move for or scan the airlines the couriers the desk places fly with. If you travel often yourself, flying as an OnBoard Courier pays per completed assignment. For anything urgent, the fastest route is the quote form above, answered by a person, day or night.

One person beats a parcel networkon Kenya Airways

Tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.

Operational route facts

How the flying actually works

Alternative gateways nearby

Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for on Kenya Airways

The night bank out of Terminal 3

The short sectors, several times a day

Abu Dhabi as the second runway

on Kenya Airways: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.

Kenya Airways in the network the desk measures

The sectors that carry the KQ code most often

Where KQ meets the UAE gateways

Night restrictions on the airports the KQ code uses

Published lanes that carry the KQ code

The countries the KQ code opens

Where to go next on the KQ network

Where Kenya Airways fits in an OBC routing

Cabin baggage reality

Connections

How we book

Customs is separate

Why frequency matters

Independence

Destinations and markets this carrier serves for us

On board courier vs air cargo

✓ On board courier

✕ Air cargo & express freight

Questions about flying Kenya Airways

01Are you an agent or partner of Kenya Airways?

02Will my consignment definitely fly Kenya Airways?

03How much can a courier carry on Kenya Airways?

04Can I fly as a courier on Kenya Airways?

Need a routing that uses Kenya Airways?

Why a courier on Kenya Airways rather than a cargo booking

How an assignment routed over Nairobi runs

You tell us what it is

We screen it and price it

A named courier is assigned and booked

Collection, sealing and documentation

The consignment stays in the cabin

Customs, then a signature

The paperwork that decides how fast Nairobi goes

Duty, tax and who pays it

Legalisation and attestation

Tariff classification

Temperature and dangerous goods

ATA Carnet and temporary admission

Commercial invoice

What a Nairobi courier actually costs, and why

How much notice you give us

What is always included

Visas and positioning

The ground legs at both ends

Declared value and insurance

Distance and sector count

What can go wrong on a Nairobi assignment, and what we do about it

The consignment is larger than described

Customs asks a question

The courier is refused boarding

The flight is cancelled

The consignee is unreachable

The connection is missed

More questions about carrying a consignment on Kenya Airways

01Is the consignment insured?

02Does the consignment ever go into the hold?

03What do you need from me to start?

04Do you handle customs at Nairobi (NBO)?

05How quickly can a courier leave for Nairobi?

06What happens if the flight is cancelled?

07How is delivery proven?

08Can you collect outside the UAE?

How jobs like this actually run

The next flight out, not the next batch

Join the OBC network, become an on board courier

Estimate your price, live, before you talk to anyone

Get a quote for this route

Request a quote

I need to send something

I want to fly as a courier