Kenya’s national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) said on Monday passenger uplifts within Africa excluding Kenya totalled 419,877 indicating a growth of 8.3 per cent on the back of 2.1 per cent capacity growth. The airline said in a statement released in Nairobi that the resultant passenger cabin factor in the continent at 62.2 per cent was 2.8 percentage points higher compared to same period last year. “Passengers uplifted within Kenya at 181,762 showed a 4.2 per cent growth. The resulting cabin factor of 73.5 percent was above 63.8 per cent achieved last year indicating an improvement of 9.7 per cent,”Kenya Airways said in its operating results for the fourth quarter ended March 31. According to KQ, passenger uplift to Europe at 113,184 was a reduction on last year’s level of 118,035 following the 5 per cent capacity reduction.This resulted to 70.5 per cent seat occupancy level that was marginally better than prior year’s level of 69.7 per cent. In the Middle East, Far East and India regions, uplifted passenger traffic at 117,543 increased by 6.0 per cent against a capacity growth of 3.6 per cent, it said. The realized cabin factor of 74.6 per cent was at par with prior year. As part of fleet and destination expansion, Kenya Airways said earlier it will increase its destinations to China from the current two to six as it seeks to tap into the growing passenger and cargo travel between China and Africa.
