Kenya Airways' maiden direct flight to the US has landed at the JF Kennedy International Airport. The plane carrying 234 passengers landed some minutes after 2pm after it was delayed for 31 minutes.

The plane christened "Magical Kenya" left JKIA on October 27 at 2259 hours, cruising at 888 km/hour.It was bound to travel 11,800 km in an estimated 15-hour journey.

It had four pilots with senior pilot Captain Joseph Kinuthia leading the crew. There was also a crew of 12 attendants on the plane.

For the tourism sector, the direct flights are expected to have Kenya in Americans’ bucket list and increase the number of tourists by 50 percent to 169,364 in June 2019.

The direct flights will also open up the East Africa region, with travellers from Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Mauritius, Rwanda and Ethiopia accessing the US through Nairobi.

The journey to grant JKIA the green light has been fraught with security regulatory checks that have seen the international airport undergo assessments and audits since 2008 when the two countries signed open-skies agreement to allow direct flights.

In February last year, it attained category one status from the Federal Aviation Administration to grant it direct flights to the US, but further underwent a security audit last October to determine security preparedness.

Another audit in May showed the airport attained 78.5 percent status rating, above the global average of 62 percent International Civil Aviation level.

Two young Kenyan innovators, Shirlene Nafula and Evans Wadongo, will also be among the 234 passengers after the State gave them tickets.

Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma led the Kenyan delegation. Others on board were US Ambassador Robert Godec and KQ's Chairman Micheal Joseph were among VIP's.

CNN journalist Richard Quest, who was in the country was also on board.