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Kenya
Story Kenya
Photos |
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Photo-
above: John Cleave with Benjamin Mwanza (left), our
Ramp Supervisor and Thomas Okeyo (centre), Senior
Operations Officer. Below: Christine Cronchey with
Mohammed Noor, the MAS I.T. Specialist at the
Reservations Office. John
takes a long term view and explained, "Mombasa Air
Safari is not a city to city airline. With the
exception of services to historical Lamu town, all
our flights are to game-parks and our future is
linked to the future of Kenyas wildlife. Kenyas
unique attraction is wildlife. It is essential
therefore that our wildlife reserves, parks and
sanctuaries are well managed. During the past 100
years, pressure on land use has been consistent as
hunters become pastoralists and pastoralists become
agriculturalists and everywhere limited arable and
semi-arable land was taken up by humans. This human
pressure on wildlife land is our greatest
challenge." Asked
if he thought Mombasa Air Safari would still be
flying in 20 years time, John laughed and said, "I
am already a mzee (old one) so who knows ? If you
want to see the best of Africa and her wildlife,
better to visit Kenya sooner than
later.". On
a serious note, John ended by saying, "Our tourism
marketing board has understood that Kenya must
develop quality tourism and not high volume, low
cost tourism. That augurs well for the future. What
is also essential, is that we learn to manage our
reserves and game-parks as well as they do (for
example) in South Africa." Christine
is the co-owner of a well established Malindi based
tour company &endash; Southern Cross Safaris
(Malindi) Limited and can arrange any type of road
or air safari or combination for individuals or
large groups to anywhere in Kenya. With 30 years in
aviation and 15 years as a tour operator, Christine
can claim considerable experience. When combined
with John's 40 years in Aviation, the pair bring
solid management and direction to their Air
Safari's Programme. In
addition to daily services to game parks and the
world heritage site of Lamu, Mombasa Air Safari
will organize an air safari with hotel transfers,
game park entrance, lodge accommodation and game
drives. All this is easily accomplished through
their website at www.mombasaairsafari.com which is
in French, Italian, German and English. Explains
Christine Cronchey who personally handles most air
safari bookings over the website, "Air Safaris are
possible because most game lodges and camps in
Kenya these days keep specially prepared safari
vehicles at their accommodation for fly-in
visitors. Going by air saves long road journeys.
Some roads can be hard going. Basically we make it
all easy and convenient for the visitor. Being able
to relax at the Kenya coast is a wonderful
interlude in between visiting game parks or can be
the main base for a one week or two week
holiday." Alone
amongst Kenya's domestic airlines, Mombasa Air
Safari has become a full member of the Kenya
Association of Tour Operators (KATO) and thus
adheres to the ethics of tour operators but also
participates in various KATO meetings to ensure
that AIR SAFARIS are as well established and
conducted to the same high standard of road
safaris. British
Airways, KLM, Air Swiss, Kenya Airways and SN
Brussels all operate schedule flights from Europe
to Nairobi. Both
British Airways / Regional and Kenya Airways offer
daily jet connections from Nairobi to Mombasa for
overseas visitors and numerous air charters operate
from England, France, Germany, Switzerland and
Italy direct to Mombasa. MOMBASA
AIR SAFARI |
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We
have 1
Visit
MOMBASA AIR SAFARI Head Office at the General
Aviation Terminal at Mombasa's Moi International
Airport and you will step out of bright tropical
heat into cool efficiency. With its separate
terminal building with hard stand for aircraft
parking just outside the window, you can be
ticketed and through the passenger lounge for
screening and then board your flight in minutes.
Mombasa Air Safari has staff based at Diani Beach,
Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu all along the Kenya Coast
to provide friendly and efficient services on their
daily flights to LAMU, AMBOSELI, TSAVO and the
MASAI MARA. Owned and operated by two Kenyans,
Christine Cronchey and John Cleave since 1974, they
can claim to be the best known Kenya Coast
airline.
Asked
which game parks he recommends, John says, "Each
one is unique and they all have their own
attractions. However for a two or three day visit,
the Masai Mara offers excellent all year round game
viewing and during the annual wilderbeest
migrations between July to September, the wildlife
viewing is spectacular. Amboseli is especially good
for photography with Kilimanjaro in the background
and is well known for elephant herds. Tsavo is a
huge chunk of land that no one really knows what to
do with, so it was turned into a Game Park. Over
the years it has lost vegitation and animal
numbers. If you enjoy wild open spaces then Tsavo
will suit you, and it still represents the real
bush experience, but I always recommend combining
Tsavo with at least one other Park. The quality of
the camp is particularly important in Tsavo. One of
the best is Finch Hattons."