Kenya Airways Hit by Booking System Glitch, Issues Statement

• Hundreds of passengers were inconvenienced on Tuesday after Kenya Airways (KQ) was hit by an internet outage that rocked its booking system
• KQ also noted its employees were unable to report to work on time due to anti-finance bill protests that disrupted transport operations in Nairobi and other towns
• The national carrier apologised to its customers and said it was working to restore normal operations as soon as possible

Kenya Airways (KQ) has experienced an outage in its ticket booking system, leading to the cancellation of several flights and inconvenience for travellers.

Passengers wait in a queue at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to re-book their flights. Photo: Simon Maina. Source: Getty Images

What caused KQ's system outage?

In a statement on Tuesday, June 25, the airline attributed the outage to internet disruptions following damage to the undersea cable by its internet service provider.

KQ also noted its employees were unable to report to work on time due to anti-finance bill protests that disrupted transport operations in Nairobi and other towns.

"We would like to notify our customers that we are experiencing a system outage that has impacted some of our core services, including our booking system, flight status updates and customer support. This outage is a result of damage to the undersea cable as communicated by our internet service provider," KQ stated.

KQ sets up alternative channels

KQ said it had set up alternative support channels for affected customers (kenya-airways-com) to check flight status and X.

"We understand that this disruption may cause inconvenience and sincerely apologise," it added.

The Kenyan national carrier noted it was working to restore normal services as soon as possible.

What did Safaricom say about the internet outage?

The telecommunications firm said the internet outage was caused by the failure of its two underwater cables, which deliver internet traffic in and out of the country.

Safaricom noted that it activated redundancy measures to address the interruption.

It cautioned Kenyans to expect reduced internet speed and intermittency on various service applications, including the M-Pesa app and Safaricom App.

Safaricom noted that to access M-Pesa, customers should use the USSD code *334# or the SIM toolkit.

When was Kenya hit by slow internet?

On May 12, Kenyans were left frustrated after being hit by slow internet speeds.

Internet service providers came out to explain the slow connectivity in East Africa and South Africa.

The providers, including Safaricom and Airtel, explained that the slow internet was caused by a major sub-sea fibre cut.