Kenya Airways banks on African routes to up revenue

Kenya Airways has announced a 15 per cent rise on its African operations, making up for the decline on the European routes.

The airline attributes the growth in passenger numbers within the continent to the resumption of flights to West Africa and the deployment of bigger planes, including the larger Boeing 737 to replace the Brazilian-made Embraer E190.

“The African market compared positively with prior year with western Africa reporting the highest increase at 15 per cent due to resumption of flights after the Ebola epidemic, coupled with the reintroduction of flights into Bangui,” KQ said in a statement.

The airline’s operations were disrupted last year by the Ebola epidemic which rocked several West African nations, including Sierra Leone. It, however, did not disclose how the improved operations would impact on the profitability of the loss-making airline. Disposal of the older B777s led to a smaller fleet and an enhanced efficiency.

“Despite the reduced capacity, the airline increased the seats flown during the period by 1.6 per cent to 1.58 million due to efficient use of aircrafts,” KQ added. During the first quarter of the financial year, the airline revised its network to improve connectivity through its Nairobi hub and more so increase its presence in Africa.

But on the flipside, KQ reduced capacity to both Europe and India from the wide bodied B777s to B787s and narrow bodied B737s.

The two operations were down more than a quarter compared to the same period last year. Among the reasons for the fleet rationalisation was that the B787s aircraft is more efficient that the B777s for the Nairobi-London route.