Kenya Airways (NSE: KQ) has increased flight frequency to three regional tourist destinations – Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro in July – August 2019. The increased frequency will also cover the Juba and Kigali routes as a result of increased demand during the peak travel season.
The coastal city of Mombasa will see an increase of two flights to twelve daily with customers travelling to Kilimanjaro enjoying an additional flight bringing the total flights to two daily. The Juba, Zanzibar and Kigali routes will each see an additional flight with 4 flights to Juba (Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday), 5 flights to Zanzibar (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday) and daily flights to Kigali.
The airline will also increase passenger-seating capacity for leisure destinations by operating the Boeing 737-800 to Livingstone, Victoria Falls and Cape Town with a similar aircraft flying to Mauritius on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
“The additional frequencies will ensure we serve our customers better, more efficiently and in a timely manner. This will also play an important role in growing our business in addition to supporting the tourism industry,” said Kenya Airways chief commercial officer, Ursula Silling.
The key routes and additional frequencies are part of Kenya Airways’ network expansion strategy, which is essential to the ongoing financial turnaround. As part of the airline’s 5-year plan, Kenya Airways will continue to invest in its network and new routes, including an increase in capacity for both long and short haul destinations.
The most recent developments on this front are the direct routes to Rome, Geneva, Mauritius, New York, Libreville, Mogadishu and Malindi. In addition to this, KQ has also increased flight frequency to Amsterdam, Paris, Bujumbura and Cape Town.
“One of our priority areas is the financial turnaround of the organization with a key focus on network expansion, customer excellence and prudential financial management” added Ursula.
In the last financial year, Kenya Airways served an average of 13,258 passengers daily, an increase from 12,484 in 2017.Passenger revenues in 2018 grew to Sh114.2 billion largely driven by a growth in higher yielding traffic to and from Kenya, an increase in premium business class traffic and commercial efficiencies.
