IT has been a very successful year for Kenya Airways, who announced their inaugural flight from Nairobi to Jeddah last month. The much anticipated service marks Kenya Airways’ 56th global destination and third in the Middle East. Abraham Joseph, area manager – Middle East & Pakistan for Kenya Airways said, “Saudi Arabia is a very important market for Kenya Airways and an important addition to the airline’s growing Middle East network. The initial response to the launch has been extremely encouraging and we look forward to rapidly establishing our presence in the Saudi Arabian market.”
Kenya Airways has been flying in the Middle East for the last 28 years and has always been an operation providing a point-to-point connection for customers flying in and out of Africa. “That has changed over the years and since the last two years we have been concentrating on expanding our routes in the Middle East.
“Our last fiscal year (April 2010 to March 2011) witnessed a lot of management changes and the focus has shifted from the traditional ethnic traffic to more commercial international travel. Since then we have seen a significant improvement in traffic with about 27 per cent overall growth in comparison to the previous year. The new fiscal year (starting March 2011) to date has been strong with some 17 per cent growth in passenger numbers from last year. In the Middle East, we have seen about 13 per cent growth and we re very pleased about it.”
He added, “We do have some constraints with our growth capacity and had it not been for that we would have seen even stronger numbers. We currently operate about 10 flights a week. The idea was to have double daily.”
“Also on our route expansion plan for this year, is Beirut. We believe this route will be very strong with the large number of Lebanese staying across Africa. We also hope to include Abu Dhabi to our network by early 2013, after Dubai gets its daily double frequency,” said Joseph.
Staying close to their commitment of fleet modernisation, the airline signed an agreement with General Electric Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric, for the delivery of two Boeing 777-300 Extended Range (ER) aircrafts. The two aircrafts are expected to be join Kenya Airways fleet in October 2013 and May 2014 respectively with the aircrafts scheduled to operate long haul routes including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Guangzhou and Dubai in order to maximise both passenger and cargo traffic.
“This will be exceptionally beneficial and shows our commitment to these key markets. With the increased passenger and cargo capacity that the Boeing 777-300ER offers, it will increase tonnage and passenger capacity and enhancing our premium service offering to our guests,” said Jospeh.
Kenya Airways will configure its 777-300ER’s with approximately 400 seats which is an extra passenger capacity of about 78 passengers over the 777-200ER. In addition, the aircraft will offer higher volumetric cargo capacity of over 12 tonnes.
Earlier this year, Kenya Airways and Boeing Commercial Airplanes reached an agreement on the order for nine Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircrafts with the first one expected to be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2013.