Small on purpose.
Since 1998 · Wilson Airport, Nairobi
Four aircraft, one type, two pilots on every flight. We could fly more aircraft. We'd rather fly these ones well.
The short version
Yellow Wings Air Services Ltd is a Kenyan charter airline at Wilson Airport, Nairobi. Christian Strebel, an aircraft engineer and airline transport pilot who has flown in East Africa since 1987, founded it, and it received its first air operator certificate in 1998. We fly four Cessna Grand Caravans on safari, corporate, medevac, special-mission and filming work across Kenya, Tanzania and beyond, and we've been carbon neutral since 2021.
- First air operator certificate
- 1998
- People, 11 of them pilots
- 26
- Cessna Grand Caravans, and nothing else
- 4
- Airfields in our database
- 500+
Where we are
Lengai House II, Wilson Airport, Nairobi
Offices, reservations, flight operations and the aircraft.
JKIA
Our dispatchers meet international connections there as well as at Wilson.
Everywhere else
500 airfields, most of them without a building.
Who owns Yellow Wings
Yellow Wings is privately owned and run by its founder. It isn't part of an airline group, and the person who signs the air operator certificate still flies the line.
How we work
It comes down to four things:
- 01
Above the minimum.
Two pilots where the law allows one. 1,500 hours on type before anyone flies you. Engines overhauled on a fixed interval, not when they need it.
- 02
One type.
Four Caravans, so every pilot, engineer and spare part knows every aircraft.
- 03
People who stay.
Our Head of Reservations has been here almost since the start. Our Head of Quality joined in 2004. One of our captains started as an intern.
- 04
Carbon neutral.
Every litre of fuel offset since 2021, through a forest project about an hour's flight from Wilson.