Kenya Airways Q1 capacity within Africa increase by 15 percent

Kenya Airways Africa connectivity through its hub Nairobi is paying off as its passenger and load factors rise in its results for the first quarter of the current financial year by 15 percent.

According to its results for the first quarter of the current financial year and key indicators are showing an upward trend achieved through increased frequencies to some African destinations and the upgrade from B737s to B787s and from Embraer E190 to B737s on certain African routes.

Read: Kenya Airways Reduces Operating Loss by 75 percent in FY 2015/2016 in Turnaround Strategy

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), “Africa is set to be one of the fastest-growing aviation regions over the next 20 years, with annual expansion averaging nearly 5%. This opens up incredible economic opportunities for Africa. But aviation faces considerable challenges, and for its potential to be realized, correct policies must be developed. Smarter regulation, and a focus on delivering the safety and connectivity commitments of the African Union, will be crucial to establishing Africa as a global aviation powerhouse,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Highlights of the African Market

• Western Africa reporting the highest increase at 15 percent due to resumption of flights after the Ebola epidemic, coupled with the reintroduction of flights into Bangui.

• An increase in frequency in Djibouti via Addis Ababa represented an increase of 9 percent in the Northern African region.

• The total passengers uplifted at 894,240 showed a growth of 0.6 percent compared to the same period last year. Africa continued to perform strongly.

• Passenger numbers in West Africa increased by 28 percent to 85,079, while in Central Africa and North Africa there was an increase of 20 percent, 44,887 and 2 percent, 48,628 respectively due to higher frequencies and capacity year on year.

• During the period the airline’s cabin factor improved from 65.2 percent to 66.3 percent.

Africa is a key market for Kenya Airways. Out of the 62 destinations that Kenya Airways currently flies to, over 40 are in Africa.

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However, the fleet’s capacity on Europe reduced by 17 percent  with the replacement of the B777s with the more fuel efficient B787s and change of operations on the London route.

Traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) stood at 2,332million which was at par with the same period the prior year.

This effective utilisation of available fleet saw the Europe market achieve a cabin factor of 77% representing a 12 percentage point improvement over the prior period with India region’s cabin factor growing by 18 percentage point’s year on year.

The airline continues to implement its turnaround strategy Operation Pride whose main objectives are closing the profitability gap, refocusing the business model as well as optimising the capital of the company.

Last week, Kenya’s National Assembly authorized the fleet to fly directly to China via Vietnam after it approved the ratification of bilateral air services agreement between Nairobi and Hanoi.

The airline plans to exploit the provisions of the bilateral air services agreement to increase its flights into China from Vietnam.

The legislators further passed a report tabled by parliamentary Committee on Transport that also cleared the ratification a bilateral air services agreement signed between Kenya and Liberia that will see KQ expand its flights to Monrovia.

KQ currently flies directly to Guangzhou and to Beijing and Shanghai through a code share agreement with China Southern Airlines.

Read: Jambojet, Kenya Airways sign code share agreement

The bilateral air services agreements facilitate airlines to expand their existing route networks by directly operating scheduled air services to other markets.
The deal between Kenya and the socialist republic of Vietnam was negotiated and initialed on August 7, 2014 in Hanoi. The agreement between Kenya and Liberia was negotiated and initialed on August 16, 2005 in Monrovia.