Safety, Reliability, And Affordability, Jambojet Is Redefining Travel Across Kenya And Beyond
Since 2014, Jambojet has transformed air travel in Kenya by making it convenient, reliable, and affordable for millions. Celebrating 11 years in 2025, the airline has flown 9 million passengers, 44% of them first-time flyers, redefining the skies and creating opportunities for travelers across the country and beyond.
Go Places sat down with Cynthia Otoro, Director of Sales and Marketing at Jambojet, to discuss the airline’s journey, milestones, and why Jambojet continues to be the airline of choice in Kenya.
1) Please introduce yourself and tell us your role at Jambojet.
My name is Cynthia Otoro. I’m the Director of Sales and Marketing at Jambojet. Jambojet celebrated 11 years this year of operations since we started operations in 2014. And Jambojet came to revolutionize flying because flying previously was not for everybody. And so what Jambojet came to offer is convenience, is reliability and also affordability into the market.
2) Looking back at your 11 years, what impact has Jambojet had on air travel in Kenya?
For 11 years, Jambojet has now flown about 9 million passengers and 44% of those passengers are first-time flyers, which means were Jambojet not to be, those people would not be able to fly. So it’s the reliability that we’re offering, the convenience that we’re offering and also the affordability that we’re offering to the market. That’s what we’ve been able to do and that’s what has propelled the brand forward this long. Currently, Jambojet owns 73% of the market, which just shows you how many people we’ve enabled to fly between the different destinations that we fly to.
3) What values define the Jambojet brand today?
We really strive to be affordable, we strive to provide convenience and we also strive to be sustainable. In fact, safety is what guides us, safety is what protects us. And it’s no feat that we are the only airline in Kenya, the only local airline in Kenya that is IOSA registered. And IOSA is the global standard for aviation safety. Most global airlines have the registration and every two years we do these audits to ensure that we remain safe. And that’s what we provide to our customers because we can sell many things, but what the customer is truly looking for is to be safe because they are entrusting you with their lives.
4) Tell us about your destinations and frequency of flights.
We serve eight destinations in Kenya. And if you look at all of these destinations, we have the highest number of frequencies in all of these destinations. We fly up to 11 times to Mombasa. We fly six times to Kisumu. We fly five times to Eldoret. Four times to Ukunda and Malindi. So you can see how we serve these markets at any time of day. So you will be assured of getting a flight in the morning, a flight in the afternoon and a flight late evening.
5) Digital plays a big role in aviation today—how is Jambojet adapting?
At Jambojet, our main business actually runs online. So when it comes to digital, Africa is digital first. The market we serve is digital first. And so we have to ensure that we are providing the best experience online. It actually at the moment contributes about 80% of our revenues, which means it’s a very important aspect for the business. And we have to constantly invest to innovate, to ensure that it works seamlessly. And that’s what we do from a sales perspective and also from the IT perspective.
6) What investments have you made in products, services, and fleet?
When it comes to products and services that we offer to our customers, we customize them based on their needs. We know we have groups. We have business partners. We have international markets who probably don’t know a lot about our destination. So we custom make specific products for specific markets. And specific audience segments to ensure that we are addressing their needs. The other thing that we do is we invest in our young fleet. Our fleet is about six years old, which means we are able to stay reliable. Which means we are able to provide the service to our customers that is high standard. Our fleet, our aircraft is new. It’s clean. So when the customer comes to your aircraft or when they’re taking their flight, they want to see a very clean aircraft. They want to see a new aircraft that is reliable. And that’s what we’ve been able to offer with our fleet.
7) What routes and partnerships are you showcasing at MKTE 2025?
We are here to showcase our destinations. We cover most of the destinations in Kenya. And we have the highest number of frequencies in the destinations in Kenya. We also introduced a new route that is Mombasa Zanzibar just last year. So this is another new growing route that is a very key route for the international market. Because, you know, people want to experience coast to coast. And we are giving them that option as well. And the other thing that we do when we come to these engagements, we want to showcase also our partnerships. We don’t only partner with airlines in Kenya, but we also partner with global airlines. So we want to showcase our partnerships with other Codeshare partners, with other APIs that they can find us in. So that they understand, how can they find Jambojet? How can they book Jambojet? We want to show them that even though we are an airline in Kenya, we are available globally.
8) How does Jambojet engage with hosted buyers and travel partners?
We are very proud partners of MKTE. And besides exhibiting at the expo, we also do fam trips. So we do fam trips for the hosted buyers to the different destinations that we fly to. We’ve hosted fam trips to Lamu, we’ve hosted fam trips to Diani, to Kisumu, to Mombasa, and to Malindi as well. So what this enables us to do is for these hosted buyers to have first-hand experience as to what flying Jambojet is like. And we look forward to providing that this year as well. And to connect them to all of these destinations. And the expectation from that is that they are going to create itineraries for their customers that include Jambojet destinations.
9) What should visitors expect from your booth at MKTE 2025?
We can’t wait to host you at our booth in this year’s MKTE. And this year we have something totally different. We have some experiential that we want to take you literally to the destinations without you actually being in the destinations. So we can’t wait for you to experience that. So that you don’t have to actually fly, but we are giving you the experience of flying into these destinations. So we can’t wait to show you that.
10) How has partnering with Go Places supported Jambojet’s visibility?
The partnership with Go Places is very unique and it’s very very specific to the industry that we operate. Because these are experts in tourism and not only local tourism but also international tourism. So we are given a platform that you can connect with not only the local tourism market but also the global tourism market. And so that gives us a unique opportunity to engage more, to reach more people and to also have meaningful conversations. Because they understand the brand, they understand the product and they understand what we are trying to sell. So it’s very easy for them to make the connection between Jambojet and our customer.
About Cynthia Otoro
Cynthia Otoro is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Jambojet. With over a decade of leadership in aviation, she champions the airline’s mission of making flying accessible, reliable, and safe for millions of passengers.
Interview by Nev Jiwani, Group Managing Director, Go Places
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