African Express Airways
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| Founded | 1986 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Jomo Kenyatta International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Mogadishu | ||||||
| Fleet size | 2 | ||||||
| Destinations | 3[1] | ||||||
| Headquarters | Embakasi, Nairobi, Kenya | ||||||
| Website | flyafricanexpress | ||||||
African Express Airways is a Somali-owned[2] Kenyan airline with its head office at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Embakasi, Nairobi, Kenya.[3]
African Express Airways is a short-haul airline, which caters to business and leisure travellers and operates daily departures. It also has an associate company located near its head offices, Jet Aircraft Maintenance Ltd., which specializes in jet aircraft maintenance ranging from 'A' to 'B', 'C' and 'D' checks for most medium-range aircraft of Western aircraft brands. The company has a new in site hangar equipped with all facilities, including maintenance hangar rental services for third parties who may have their own engineers and approvals.
Destinations
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Current destinations
As of July 2024, African Express Airways operates services to the following domestic and international scheduled destinations:[1]
- Kenya
- Somalia
- Yemen
Former destinations
The airline previously also served the following airports:[4]
- Comoros
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Kenya
- Mombasa – Moi International Airport
- Eldoret – Eldoret International Airport
- Kisumu – Kisumu International Airport
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
Fleet
Current fleet
As of August 2025[update], African Express Airways operates the following aircraft:[6]
| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Y | Total | |||
| Douglas DC-9-30 | 1 | — | 10 | 90 | 100 |
| Bombardier CRJ200LR | 1 | — | — | 50 | 50 |
| Total | 2 | — | |||
Former fleet
Accidents and incidents
- 4 May 2020: An East African Express Airways Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, registration number 5Y-AXO, on an air charter flight delivering pandemic relief supplies, crashed on approach to Berdale, Somalia, killing all 2 crew and 4 non-revenue passengers on board.[8] On 10 May, a leaked African Union peacekeeping force report alleged that ground troops of the Ethiopian National Defense Force who were operating outside the peacekeeping force's authority mistakenly concluded that the aircraft was engaged in a suicide attack and shot it down; this allegation ignited controversy over Ethiopian and Kenyan military incursions into Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab militants there. The three countries have initiated a joint investigation of the accident.[9]
- 31 March 2024: A Boeing 727-200 operated by Safe Air Company scheduled to fly from Juba International Airport to Malakal Airport, South Sudan, undershot the runway after experiencing technical issues. The plane collided into a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 belonging to African Express Airways, that had crashed around two months earlier in the same airport.[10]
