Kenya Airways: ‘Hello Delhi’
To strengthen its market in India and highlight India’s growing importance, Kenya Airways is now spreading its wings here. It mulls operations to four more destinations in India such as Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Bengaluru, says Evanson Mw
Evanson
Mwaniki was in the Indian capital to launch the direct flights from New Delhi to Nairobi. The Indian capital is now the airline’s 57th destination, the latest since the airline launched flights to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in October last year. It is also the second destination that Kenya Airways flies to in the Indian sub-continent, the other being Mumbai. Kenya Airways will be flying to New Delhi four times a week on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Kenya Airways will deploy Boeing 767-300 aircraft on the four-times-aweek New Delhi – Nairobi (DEL NBO) service.
Looking at increasing the destinations the airline will fly to, the chairman said, “We are planning to increase our fleet size from the current 34 to 68 in the next five years and to 110 in the next ten years. We shall start operating to the new routes in India as per the availability and delivery of the ordered aircraft.” Not just is it increasing its fleet size, the airline is also strengthening its portfolio by adding more destinations. The airline is also going strong on expanding its global network with plans to fly to 115 destinations in the next ten years. The carrier has plans to increase its network from the existing 57 to 91 destinations in the next five years. Kenya Airways is also seeking compensation from the US-based aircraft maker Boeing for delay in delivery of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Discussions between the two companies are tak- ing place even as Boeing is yet to deliver the first of the nine 787s ordered by Kenya’s national carrier. “We are asking for compensation as we have lost business due to the delay,” Mwaniki lamented. He, however, declined to comment on the amount it was seeking. The first of the Boeing 787 aircraft was to be delivered by October 2010 but it would now be delivered between January and March 2014.
According to Mohan Chandra, Commercial Director, Kenya Airways, India is a big potential mar- ket for the airline. The airline plans to position Nairobi as a stopover destination. “Apart from the existing market, we are targetting customers travelling to other African destinations via Nairobi as
The New Delhi – Nairobi service will surpass the Mumbai service in terms of business very soon
the capital is also well-connected to other African countries. The existing market from Delhi consists of tourists, wedding groups, leisure travellers and professionals,” he informed. Talking about the performance of the Mumbai-Nairobi flights, he revealed, “The Mumbai-Nairobi flights are doing well and have achieved a yearly load factor of above eighty per cent. However, the New Delhi – Nairobi service will surpass the Mumbai service in terms of business very soon.” The airline has recently increased its frequencies in Mumbai from seven to 10 to cater to the demand between India and Africa.
Along with the airlines pursuing a network expansion strategy that targets to link all African countries with the world, Kenya is also betting big on Indo- Kenya relations. India is Kenya’s sixth largest trading partner. Recently, Kenya- India relations have improved buoyed by increasing bilateral trade that hit US $ 4.8 billion in 2010- 11. Recently the airline announced a right issue offer to be launched on March 30. The company hopes to raise Kshs20.7 billion from its shareholders. Proceeds from the rights issue are projected to fund implementation of the ambitious 10- year expansion plan dubbed Project Mawingu; which would see the airline increase its number of destinations from the current 56 to 115 destinations by the year 2021.